Verifying Autonomous Systems

The article discusses how to explore autonomous systems and the agents that control them. Autonomous systems are now being deployed in safety, mission, or business critical scenarios, which means a thorough analysis of the choices the core software might make becomes crucial. Modern household, business, and industrial systems increasingly incorporate autonomy. There are many examples, all varying in the degree of autonomy used, from almost pure human control to fully autonomous activities with minimal human interaction. Application areas are broad, ranging from healthcare monitoring to autonomous vehicles. Rational agents can adapt their autonomous behavior to cater for the dynamic aspects of their environment, their requirements and their knowledge. Typically, they can also modify their decision-making following interactions with their environment. The predominant form of rational agent architecture is that provided through the Beliefs, Desires, and Intentions (BDI) approach.