Towards Compositional Verification for Modular Robotic Systems

Cardoso, Rafael C.; Dennis, Louise A.; Farrell, Marie; Fisher, Michael; Luckcuck, Matt

doi:10.4204/eptcs.329.2

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This work uses distinct verification methods for specific components but does explicitly link the verification artifacts produced. Recent work proposes first-order logic to unify heterogeneous formal methods via a compositional approach but this work currently lacks tool support [7].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Formal Verification and Assurance: An Inspection Rover Case Study

Bourbouh

Farrell

Mavridou

et al. 2021

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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The complexity and flexibility of autonomous robotic systems necessitates a range of distinct verification tools. This presents new challenges not only for design verification but also for assurance approaches. Combining the distinct formal verification tools, while maintaining sufficient formal coherence to provide compelling assurance evidence is difficult, often being abandoned for less formal approaches. In this paper we demonstrate, through a case study, how a variety of distinct formal techniques can be brought together in order to develop a justifiable assurance case. We use the AdvoCATE assurance case tool to guide our analyses and to integrate the artifacts from the formal methods that we use, namely: fret, cocosim and Event-B. While we present our methodology as applied to a specific Inspection Rover case study, we believe that this combination provides benefits in maintaining coherent formal links across development and assurance processes for a wide range of autonomous robotic systems.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Formal Verification and Assurance: An Inspection Rover Case Study

Bourbouh

Farrell

Mavridou

et al. 2021

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…Related, a recent survey of formal specification and verification techniques for autonomous robotic systems has revealed that, although there are many tools and techniques available, improvements are still required for their successful deployment in large, complex and autonomous systems (Farrell et al, 2018;Luckcuck et al, 2019). Given modular robot architectures composed of distinct subsystems, different types of verification can potentially be used for different components, as described in (Farrell et al, 2019b;Cardoso et al, 2020a;Cardoso et al, 2020b), as some verification techniques may be more appropriate than others for certain subsystems. Our work also uses multiple distinct verification techniques (Dafny and ROSMonitoring) to verify different components/aspects of the system.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal Modelling and Runtime Verification of Autonomous Grasping for Active Debris Removal

et al. 2022

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Active debris removal in space has become a necessary activity to maintain and facilitate orbital operations. Current approaches tend to adopt autonomous robotic systems which are often furnished with a robotic arm to safely capture debris by identifying a suitable grasping point. These systems are controlled by mission-critical software, where a software failure can lead to mission failure which is difficult to recover from since the robotic systems are not easily accessible to humans. Therefore, verifying that these autonomous robotic systems function correctly is crucial. Formal verification methods enable us to analyse the software that is controlling these systems and to provide a proof of correctness that the software obeys its requirements. However, robotic systems tend not to be developed with verification in mind from the outset, which can often complicate the verification of the final algorithms and systems. In this paper, we describe the process that we used to verify a pre-existing system for autonomous grasping which is to be used for active debris removal in space. In particular, we formalise the requirements for this system using the Formal Requirements Elicitation Tool (FRET). We formally model specific software components of the system and formally verify that they adhere to their corresponding requirements using the Dafny program verifier. From the original FRET requirements, we synthesise runtime monitors using ROSMonitoring and show how these can provide runtime assurances for the system. We also describe our experimentation and analysis of the testbed and the associated simulation. We provide a detailed discussion of our approach and describe how the modularity of this particular autonomous system simplified the usually complex task of verifying a system post-development.

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“…• the initial presentation of the contract calculus in [11], which we significantly update; and, • our application of heterogeneous verification approaches to a simulation of the Mars Curiosity rover [12], which we also update with additional steps.…”

Section: Can We Use a Compositional And Heterogeneous Approach To Ver...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Code, Models, and Verification Evidence for: A Compositional Approach to Verifying Modular Robotic Systems

Luckcuck,

Farrell,

Ferrando

et al. 2022

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Robotic systems used in safety-critical industrial situations often rely on modular software architectures, and increasingly include autonomous components. Verifying that these modular robotic systems behave as expected requires approaches that can cope with, and preferably take advantage of, this inherent modularity. This paper describes a compositional approach to specifying the nodes in robotic systems built using the Robot Operating System (ROS), where each node is specified using First-Order Logic (FOL) assume-guarantee contracts that link the specification to the ROS implementation. We introduce inference rules that facilitate the composition of these node-level contracts to derive system-level properties. We also present a novel Domain-Specific Language, the ROS Contract Language (RCL), which captures a node's FOL specification and links this contract to its implementation. RCL contracts can be automatically translated, by our tool Vanda, into executable monitors; which we use to enforce the contracts at runtime. We illustrate our approach through the specification and verification of an autonomous rover engaged in the remote inspection of a nuclear site, and examples focussing on the specification and verification of individual nodes.

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Towards Compositional Verification for Modular Robotic Systems

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

Integrating Formal Verification and Assurance: An Inspection Rover Case Study

Integrating Formal Verification and Assurance: An Inspection Rover Case Study

Formal Modelling and Runtime Verification of Autonomous Grasping for Active Debris Removal

Code, Models, and Verification Evidence for: A Compositional Approach to Verifying Modular Robotic Systems

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