2026-01-21 10:56:16 -05:00

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\section{Research Approach}
\iffalse
HACS: hybrid autonomous control system
HAHACS: High-Assurance Hybrid AUtonomous Control System
The research approach here needs to clearly outline the solution the the problem
and identify the actions taken that will advance knowledge and solve the
problem.
First, what is the problem?
\textit{
Inhibition to adopt hybrid autonomous control in critical infrastructure is
rooted in safety concerns of system stability. Without a human in the loop
with general intelligence, HACS have not been trusted where failure modes can
be unique and novel.
}
So, what's the solution?
\textit{
This research approach develops a methodology to build HACS that are provably
safe. This methodology builds on existing technologies, and unifies different
research thrusts to build a complete hybrid control system. To do this, the
problem of a HAHCS is broken into three distinct pieces:
\begin{enumerate}
\item System specification: properties of the HAHaCS such as transition
between control modes and system invariants are specified using a formal
methods tool.
- This provides exact behavior
- allows realizabillity checking of controller specs. Can a controller
actually be built from these specs?
- ?
- ?
\item Discrete Behavior Synthesis: The discrete component of the controller
is synthesized directly from system specifications using reactive
synthesis.
- This ELIMINATES wholesale the possibility of introducing logical bugs
in the creation of the strategic part of the HAHCS. Critical decisions
that are normally made by a human are automated directly from the
formal specifications.
- This does two critical things:
- It makes the creation of the controller tractable. The reasons the
controller changes between modes acn be traced back to the
specification (and thus any requirements), which is a trace for
liability and justification of system behavior
- Discrete control decisions made by humans are reliant on the human
operator operating correctly. Humans are intrinsically probabalistic
creatures who cannot eliminate human error. By defining the behavior
of this system using temporal logics and synthesizing the controller
using deterministic algorithims, we are assured that strategic
decisions will always be made as according to operating procedures.
\item Continuous Behavior Synthesis and Verification: The continuous
components of the controller are built using existing dynamics and control
theory but then verified using reachability and barrier certificats.
- It's very challenging (nigh impossible) to say for certain how to
build any continuous control mode. That is honestly going to be have to
left to the specific control system and its objectives. It's not really
the point of this PhD to say how to do that. For that reason, I'm going
to assume that controllers between modes are generally possible to
build. That is to say that there exists a controller that can transition
between modes, but it is a human hunt to find it.
- To check if a candidate controller does transition between discrete
modes, we do two things:
- Check invariants using reachability. Specifications will require
that control modes transiiton from one mode to the next, where
appropriate. When this is the case, these invariants are extracted to
be checked using reachability. The control mode is given the possible
entry conditions of the 'entry' mode, and the possible 'exit' states
are analyzed. A cont. controller passes this reachability test if
there is no reachable state that is not at the exit condition of the
state transition.
--- This needs flushed out more. I think this can really be clarified
using entry and exit conditions of Mealy machines. The continuous
system IS the transition, and the reachabililty test is saying whether
or not the physical system actually satisfies the entry and exit
conditions.
- Then, for systems that need to STAY within one mode, we will use
barrier certificates. These can let us define a continuous state
boundary, and define for a discrete controller state, the total
controller will NOT leave the continuous boundary.
- One thing that must be considered is the idea that this analysis is
predicated on the physical system being correct to the model. If this
isn't true, we must define continuous modes that catch failure states.
If transition invariants are violated, we must shut down the system, and
build safety oriented control modes that we can be sure with a much
broader set of entry conditions will safely shut down the plant.
-- Q for dan: is it critical to really have software to namedrop or is it
better to stay amorphous on the technology? Iirc Manyu did a little bit of
both.
\end{enumerate}
What's the intellectual merit?
\textit{
There is no outstanding way to build HAHACS. This methodology provides a
basis for systems engineers to think about the components of a HAHACS as
interlocking pieces whos verification interlinks into a broader system. This
will also motivate the adoption of temporal logic to define autonomous
control systems, by allowing a close connection and tracability between
requirements from regulations to system specifications.
}
}
\fi