A Verification, Validation and Accreditation Process for Autonomous Interoperable Systems

Navies, Industries and Research are investigating how to move to future mine counter measure operations where of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles work collaboratively with minimal human interaction. Modelling and simulation is proving to be a capable support to test autonomy by the adoption, in particular, on interoperable environments that may comprise of models, hardware and software-in-the-loop. Industry and NATO standards exist for federated simulation but the standards do not provide detailed guidance to carry out lean, comprehensive and consistent design, development and testing of distributed simulation for autonomy. This paper presents a methodological framework and identifies process steps that support users in the design and development and allow development teams to carry out efficient verification, validation and accreditation activities on distributed simulation systems. The framework has been designed to be lean and efficient while producing outputs that comply fully with existing industry standard approaches. The presented framework has been demonstrated on a distributed modelling and simulation system in a representative underwater environment.