From MDPI via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: accepted 2021-07-06, pub-electronic 2021-07-13Publication status: PublishedThe study of autonomous agents is a well-established area that has been researched for decades, both from a design and implementation viewpoint [...

Ahlbrecht, Tobias

Briola, Daniela

Cardoso, Rafael C.

Ferrando, Angelo

Menghi, Claudio

ChesterRep

Journal of Actuator NetworksSensor andEditorialSpecial Issue: Agents and Robots for ReliableEngineered AutonomyRafael C. Cardoso 1,* , Angelo Ferrando 2,* , Daniela Briola 3,* , Claudio Menghi 4,* and Tobias Ahlbrecht 5,*Citation: Cardoso, R.C.; Ferrando,A.; Briola, D.; Menghi, C.; Ahlbrecht,T. Special Issue: Agents and Robotsfor Reliable Engineered Autonomy. J.Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 47.https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan10030047Received: 2 July 2021Accepted: 6 July 2021Published: 13 July 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutralwith regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affil-iations.Copyright: © 2021 by the authors.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This article is an open access articledistributed under the terms andconditions of the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).1 Department of Computer Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK2 Department of Computer Science, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering (DIBRIS),University of Genova, 16145 Genova, Italy3 Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication (DISCO), University of Milano Bicocca,20126 Milan, Italy4 Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, University of Luxembourg,L-4365 Luxembourg, Luxembourg5 Department of Informatics, Clausthal University of Technology, 38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany* Correspondence: rafael.cardoso@manchester.ac.uk (R.C.C.); angelo.ferrando@dibris.unige.it (A.F.);daniela.briola@unimib.it (D.B.); claudio.menghi@uni.lu (C.M.); tobias.ahlbrecht@tu-clausthal.de (T.A.)The study of autonomous agents is a well-established area that has been researched fordecades, both from a design and implementation viewpoint. Nonetheless, the applicationof agents in real-world scenarios is largely adopted when logical distribution is needed, butit is still limited when physical distribution is necessary. In parallel, robots are no longerused only in industrial applications but are instead applied in an increasing number ofdomains, ranging from robotic assistants to search and rescue. Robots in these applicationsoften benefit from (or require) some level of (semi or full) autonomy. Thus, multi-agentsolutions can be exploited in robotic scenarios, considering their strong similarity both interms of logical distribution and interaction among autonomous entities.The autonomous behavior responsible for decision making should (ideally) be verifi-able since these systems are expensive to produce and are often deployed in safety-criticalsituations. Thus, verification and validation are important and necessary steps towardproviding assurances about the reliability of autonomy in these systems. Likewise, softwareengineering techniques are an integral part of development in order to make sure that thesystems meet requirements.This Special Issue brings together researchers from the autonomous agents, softwareengineering and robotics communities, as combining knowledge from these three researchareas may lead to innovative approaches that solve complex problems related with theverification and validation of autonomous robotic systems. We (the Special Issue editors)have written a perspective paper (peer-reviewed by members of the editorial board of thejournal) that is included in our Special Issue [1]; in the perspective, we give an overviewof recent research trends for researchers that aim at working in the intersection of theseresearch areas.This Special Issue was created based on the topics discussed at the First Workshopon Agents and Robots for reliable Engineered Autonomy (https://area2020.github.io/accessed on 30 June 2021) (AREA 2020). One of the accepted papers in the workshop wasinvited to extend their work and underwent additional peer-review evaluation before beingaccepted for publication [2]. Paper [2] contains details about an architecture for linkingrobots with autonomous agents applied to a case study of campus mail delivery.The other three remaining papers, refs. [3–5], were all new submissions. Paper [3]introduces a novel formal verification approach by combining the use of two well-knownmodel checkers to verify the decision making in self-driving vehicles; it evaluates theresulting hybrid technique on a robotic simulator with a rational agent performing thedecision making. Paper [4] is also applied to the autonomous automotive domain usingagent-based control, but it is focused on the traffic rules that govern road junctions; itJ. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan10030047 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsanJ. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 47 2 of 2applies two different model checkers to assess the behavior of the agent at two differentlevels (design and development). Paper [5] provides an interpretation of the multi-agentsystems as part of the aggregate programming paradigm to support the programming ofcollective autonomous behavior. Table 1 shows an overview of the main areas discussed ineach paper of the Special Issue.Table 1. Distribution of the papers across the main areas of the Special Issue.AutonomousAgents RoboticsVerificationand ValidationSoftwareEngineeringPaper [1] ! ! ! !Paper [2] ! !Paper [3] ! ! !Paper [4] ! !Paper [5] ! !We hope that the different research communities that are represented in our SpecialIssue will improve their collaboration efforts in the future so that the best proposals fromthese different areas can be combined to create new and exciting solutions and tools to beexploited both in academia and in industry.Funding: This work received no external funding.Acknowledgments: First and foremost, we would like to thank all authors that have submittedtheir work to this Special Issue as well as the anonymous reviewers that made many commentsand suggestions leading to improved versions of the submissions. We would also like to thank thesupport of everyone in the Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks editorial office—in particular,the managing editor Louise Liu—and the academics from the editorial board that contributed to theediting process.Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.References1. Cardoso, R.C.; Ferrando, A.; Briola, D.; Menghi, C.; Ahlbrecht, T. Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy: APerspective from the Organisers of AREA 2020. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 33. [CrossRef]2. Onyedinma, C.; Gavigan, P.; Esfandiari, B. Toward Campus Mail Delivery Using BDI. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2020, 9, 56.[CrossRef]3. Al-Nuaimi, M.; Wibowo, S.; Qu, H.; Aitken, J.; Veres, S. Hybrid Verification Technique for Decision-Making of Self-DrivingVehicles. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 42. [CrossRef]4. Alves, G.V.; Dennis, L.; Fisher, M. A Double-Level Model Checking Approach for an Agent-Based Autonomous Vehicle andRoad Junction Regulations. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 41. [CrossRef]5. Casadei, R.; Aguzzi, G.; Viroli, M. A Programming Approach to Collective Autonomy. J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2021, 10, 27.[CrossRef]

Special Issue: Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy

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Special Issue: Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy

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