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

这个NSF网络物理系统（CPS）前沿项目“半自治系统（vehicle）的验证人机界面、控制和学习”正在开发人类网络物理系统（h-CPS）的验证交互设计和控制的基础——与人类操作员协同操作的网络物理系统。vehicle旨在为h-CPS提供一种正式的方法来设计接口和控制，并提供可证明的保证。vehicle项目基于一种新颖的问题表述，阐明了对h-CPS的独特要求，不仅包括自主控制器的传统正确性，还包括对人类操作员和自主控制器之间切换或共享控制的逻辑的定量要求，用户界面，隐私属性等。该项目在四个方面做出了贡献：(1)h-CPS建模的形式化；(2) h-CPS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)半自动驾驶领域的经验评估。vehicle方法带来了概念上的转变，从单独处理控制系统和人机交互的设计，转向使用整个系统的通用建模形式和需求来联合设计人机界面和控制。这种协同设计方法对形式化方法、控制理论、传感和感知、认知科学和人机界面等领域做出了新的智力贡献。在社会规模应用中部署的网络物理系统几乎总是与人类交互。vehicle项目的基础工作正在两个应用领域进行验证：与人类驾驶员交互的半自动地面车辆，以及与人类操作员交互的半自动飞行器（无人机）。h-CPS设计的一种原则性方法——在人类参与的情况下获得系统行为的可证明保证——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，该项目正在开展一项实质性的教育和推广计划，包括：(i)将研究纳入本科和研究生课程，特别是顶点项目；（ii）利用pi现有工作的广泛在线课程内容；（iii）强有力的本科研究项目，以及（iv）针对在校儿童的外展和暑期项目，重点关注弱势群体。

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.