Obsidian/Zettelkasten/Permanent Notes/Literature Notes/to_process/An autonomous control framework for advanced reactors-notes.md

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An autonomous control framework for advanced reactors notes

First Pass

Category: This is a vision-like paper.

Context: Dr. Wood is a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Tennesse. He started working at UT after working at ORNL for 20+ years where he was a senior researcher. He works on common cause failures.

Correctness: There are not many citations, and a lot of the paper seems like it is off-the-cuff. This was an invited article though in the Nuclear Engineering and Technology journal. He's also got quite the resume.

Contributions: Dr. Wood gives a good overview of where we are (automated control), and where we need to go (autonomous control). Comparisons are made to other industries, and how they've addressed these challenges. Clarifications are made with respect to how the nuclear industry is unique.

Clarity: Well written and clear, but a bit wordy at times. Examples are used but sometimes it just feels like a mouthful.

Second Pass

What is the main thrust? Wood talks a lot about what it means for a system to be autonomous. He actually starts with a etymological argument- "automatos means self-acting, whereas autonomos means independent." The point of an autonomous system is that it must be able to make intelligent decisions that a human would otherwise make. Knowing how to handle degraded or faulty sensors or actuators, switching controller trains, and knowing when scramming is necessary are all decisions that an autonomous system would make, that a simple automated system could not. The key is in the decision making.

What is the supporting evidence? Dr. Wood compares a lot to NASA control systems for the Mars rovers. These systems use two tiers of controllers: a decision layer and a functionality layer. The functionality layer does what you think--it manages the physical functioning. The decision layer is different. It decides on controller modes and works instead with operational level goals.

What are the key findings? The biggest findings are that an autonomous control system for a nuclear power plant is possible, but by far the biggest roadblock is a high assurance decision making system.

Third Pass

Recreation Notes:

Hidden Findings:

Weak Points? Strong Points?