CPS: Frontier: Collaborative Research: VeHICaL: Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems

美国国家科学基金会网络物理系统(CPS)前沿项目“半自主系统的验证人机接口、控制和学习(VEHICAL)”正在为人类网络物理系统(h-CPS)-与人类操作员协同操作的网络物理系统--的接口和控制的验证合作设计奠定基础。Vehical的目标是提供一种形式化的方法来设计h-CP的界面和控制，并提供可证明的保证。Vehical项目基于一种新的问题描述，阐明了对h-CP的独特要求，不仅包括自主控制器的传统正确性属性，而且还包括关于操作者和自主控制器之间的控制切换或共享的逻辑、用户界面、隐私属性等的量化要求。该项目从四个方面做出了贡献：(1)用于建模h-CP的形式化；(2)用于h-CP的学习、验证和控制的计算技术；(3)传感器和人机界面的设计与验证；(4)半自动车辆领域的经验评估。Vev方法带来了概念上的转移，重点从单独处理控制系统和人机交互的设计转向使用对整个系统的共同建模形式和要求的人机界面和控制的联合联合设计。这种合作设计方法正在形式方法、控制理论、感知和感知、认知科学和人机界面等领域做出新的智力贡献。部署在社会规模应用程序中的网络物理系统几乎总是与人类交互。车辆项目中正在进行的基础工作正在两个应用领域得到验证：与人类驾驶员互动的半自动地面车辆，以及与人类操作员互动的半自动飞行器(无人机)。H-CPS设计的原则性方法-一种在环路中对系统行为获得可证明的保证的方法-可以对新兴的国家“智能”基础设施产生巨大的积极影响。此外，该项目正在实施一项实质性的教育和推广计划，包括：(I)将研究纳入本科生和研究生的课程工作，特别是顶尖项目；(Ii)广泛的在线课程内容，利用私人投资机构现有的工作；(Iii)强大的本科生研究计划；以及(Iv)针对在校儿童的推广和暑期计划，重点是接触代表性不足的群体。

This NSF Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Frontier project "Verified Human Interfaces, Control, and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems (VeHICaL)" is developing the foundations of verified co-design of interfaces and control for human cyber-physical systems (h-CPS) --- cyber-physical systems that operate in concert with human operators. VeHICaL aims to bring a formal approach to designing both interfaces and control for h-CPS, with provable guarantees.The VeHICaL project is grounded in a novel problem formulation that elucidates the unique requirements on h-CPS including not only traditional correctness properties on autonomous controllers but also quantitative requirements on the logic governing switching or sharing of control between human operator and autonomous controller, the user interface, privacy properties, etc. The project is making contributions along four thrusts: (1) formalisms for modeling h-CPS; (2) computational techniques for learning, verification, and control of h-CPS; (3) design and validation of sensor and human-machine interfaces, and (4) empirical evaluation in the domain of semi-autonomous vehicles. The VeHICaL approach is bringing a conceptual shift of focus away from separately addressing the design of control systems and human-machine interaction and towards the joint co-design of human interfaces and control using common modeling formalisms and requirements on the entire system. This co-design approach is making novel intellectual contributions to the areas of formal methods, control theory, sensing and perception, cognitive science, and human-machine interfaces. Cyber-physical systems deployed in societal-scale applications almost always interact with humans. The foundational work being pursued in the VeHICaL project is being validated in two application domains: semi-autonomous ground vehicles that interact with human drivers, and semi-autonomous aerial vehicles (drones) that interact with human operators. A principled approach to h-CPS design --- one that obtains provable guarantees on system behavior with humans in the loop --- can have an enormous positive impact on the emerging national ``smart'' infrastructure. In addition, this project is pursuing a substantial educational and outreach program including: (i) integrating research into undergraduate and graduate coursework, especially capstone projects; (ii) extensive online course content leveraging existing work by the PIs; (iii) a strong undergraduate research program, and (iv) outreach and summer programs for school children with a focus on reaching under-represented groups.