Reconfigurable Autonomy
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Computer Science
Abstract
As computational and engineering applications become more sophisticated, the need for autonomous systems that can act intelligently without direct human intervention increases. Yet the autonomous control at the heart of many such systems is often ad-hoc and opaque. Since the cost of failure in critical systems is high, a more reliable, understandable and consistent approach is needed. Thus, in this project we aim to provide a rational agent architecture that controls autonomous decision-making, is re-usable and generic, and can be configured for many different autonomous platforms. In partnership with the industrial collaborators we aim to show how such "reconfigurable autonomy" can be achieved in relevant applications.
Planned Impact
Regardless of any industrial sponsorship for this Call, there is a clear industrial need for this technology. Industries involved in developing robotics, autonomous vehicles, or remote exploration systems will be interested in our developments. Yet the generic architecture potentially extends beyond these, more obvious, areas to any autonomous system that must intelligently deal with a stochastic, continuous environment. This then can cover very many software, embedded, pervasive, or autonomic systems. So, to industry, the proposed approach (if demonstrated successfully) can help to reduce future autonomy software and system development costs (including speeding up the development process).
The development of a generic, yet reconfigurable, core for autonomous systems will bring many potential benefits to academic and industrial researchers:
* improved reliability;
* cost-effective re-use;
* applicability of solutions to wider areas;
* improved clarity and user interaction; and, potentially,
* reduced vulnerabilities.
Clearly, we will collaborate with academics and the industrial sponsors of this Call in order to explore some of these advantages. Through our wider network of industrial collaborators, we will also target more general exploitation within the broad area of autonomous systems.
The development of a generic, yet reconfigurable, core for autonomous systems will bring many potential benefits to academic and industrial researchers:
* improved reliability;
* cost-effective re-use;
* applicability of solutions to wider areas;
* improved clarity and user interaction; and, potentially,
* reduced vulnerabilities.
Clearly, we will collaborate with academics and the industrial sponsors of this Call in order to explore some of these advantages. Through our wider network of industrial collaborators, we will also target more general exploitation within the broad area of autonomous systems.
Organisations
- University of Liverpool (Lead Research Organisation)
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Co-funder)
- Sellafield (United Kingdom) (Co-funder)
- Schlumberger (United Kingdom) (Co-funder)
- United Kingdom Space Agency (Co-funder)
- BAE Systems (United Kingdom) (Co-funder)
- Network Rail (Co-funder)
- Department for Work and Pensions (Collaboration)
Publications
Fisher M
(2013)
Verifying autonomous systems
in Communications of the ACM
Dennis L
(2014)
Reconfigurable Autonomy
in KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
Webster M
(2014)
Generating Certification Evidence for Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Using Model Checking and Simulation
in Journal of Aerospace Information Systems
Fisher M
(2015)
Misplaced Trust?
in Engineering & Technology Reference
Patchett C
(2015)
Safety and Certification of Unmanned Air Systems
in Engineering & Technology Reference
Dennis L
(2016)
Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems
Dennis L
(2016)
Formal verification of ethical choices in autonomous systems
in Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Aitken J
(2018)
Autonomous Nuclear Waste Management
in IEEE Intelligent Systems
Dennis L
(2018)
Two-stage agent program verification
in Journal of Logic and Computation
| Description | Research carried out on this "Reconfigurable Autonomy" project provided an architecture for incorporating vision, control, and reliable decision-making, in order to provide effective autonomous systems. This collaboration brought together expertise in autonomy from the University of Liverpool, on control from the University of Sheffield, and on vision from the Universty of Surrey. This work successfully produced and demonstrated new autonomous system technologies that are highly suitable for nuclear waste processing, hence the collaboration with industrial partners Sellafield and National Nuclear Laboratories. The second key research advance concerns the theory, development and demonstration of sophisticated "reconfigurability". Here, the autonomous system is not only self-aware but can autonomously make decisions to recover from problems. This is essential in either extreme environments, where human operatives cannot easily venture, or in facilities working 24/7, where human operatives cannot be expected to be onsite at all times. Nuclear waste processing scenarios actually involve both of these aspects. |
| Exploitation Route | When demonstrator provided at NNL Workington, there is potential for other stakeholders to utilise apprach. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Other |
| Description | Sellafield Ltd (and their government partner, National Nuclear Laboratories [NNL]) are looking for efficient, safe, and flexible ways to dismantle, manipulate, sort, and package nuclear facilities and equipment that are past their operational life. Nuclear waste processing experience has demonstrated that there is an urgent need to integrate novel automation methods in these processes. For the nuclear industry to fully benefit from our recent advances, the technology requires further TRL progression. By using a full-scale industrial waste processing facility now being developed at NNL Workington, the costs and time scales for such TRL progression can be minimized. We have begun working with both Sellafield and NNL to introduce autonomous robots into this area that has previously been totally human controlled. Through Impact Acceleration funding we are in the process of developing a demonstrator of research produced within the "Reconfigurable Autonomy" project and are beginning to port it to the NNL's new facility at Workington. We are also involved in discussion regarding Sellafield's future robotics strategy and potential routes to further exploitation. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Energy,Environment |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Britis Standards Institution: AMT/10 Committee on Robot Safety and Robot Ethics |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | Membership of IEEE P7009 Standards committee on "Failsafe Design of Autonomous Systems" |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| URL | https://standards.ieee.org/project/7009.html |
| Description | Demonstrating Automated Nuclear Waste Processing |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2016 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Network on the Verification and Validation of Autonomous Systems |
| Amount | £107,725 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/M027309/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2015 |
| End | 08/2018 |
| Description | Nuclear regulation/certification |
| Organisation | Department for Work and Pensions |
| Department | Office for Nuclear Regulation |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Initial series of meetings. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Initial series of meetings. |
| Impact | Collaboration between Univ. Liverpool, ONR and RACE (Culham Fusion) looking at future regulation for nuclear robotics. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Meeting at National Nuclear Laboratories, Brichwood |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting at National Nuclear Laboratories, Brichwood |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meeting with National Nuclear Laboratories and Sellafield, at NNL Workington |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with National Nuclear Laboratories and Sellafield, at NNL Workington |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meeting with National Nuclear Laboratories at Liverpool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with National Nuclear Laboratories at Liverpool |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meeting with Office for Nuclear Regulation, Bootle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with Office for Nuclear Regulation, Bootle |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meeting with Office for Nuclear Regulation, Bootle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with Office for Nuclear Regulation, Bootle |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Robots at Tate Liverpool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | From Summer 2016 to Spring 2017 we worked with the artist Cecile B. Evans to produce an exhibit comprising robotic performances. This was hosted by the Tate Gallery at Liverpool and currently has had over 130,000 visitors. In addition to the exhibit, involving 2 humanoid robots, a robot dog, and many videos, we held a talk/workshop at which the artist and Prof. Fisher engaged with members of the public about both the exhibit and about future developments. See: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/talk-and-lecture/cecile-b-evans/conversation-michael-fisher-and-karl-tuyls |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
| URL | http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/cecile-b-evans |