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

NSF Cyber-Physical Systems（CPS）Frontier项目“Verified Human Interfaces，Control，and Learning for Semi-Autonomous Systems（VeetralaL）”正在为人类Cyber-Physical Systems（h-CPS）--与人类操作员协同操作的Cyber-Physical Systems--开发经验证的接口和控制协同设计的基础。VeQaL旨在为h-CPS的接口和控制设计提供一种形式化的方法，并提供可证明的保证。VeQaL项目基于一种新的问题公式，该公式阐明了h-CPS的独特要求，不仅包括对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控制切换或共享的逻辑、用户界面、该项目将在沿着四个方面做出贡献：（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和验证;以及（4）半自动车辆领域的经验评估。Vehicle方法带来了概念上的重点转移，从单独解决控制系统和人机交互的设计，转向人机界面和控制的联合协同设计，使用通用的建模形式和对整个系统的要求。 这种协同设计方法正在为形式化方法、控制理论、传感和感知、认知科学和人机界面等领域做出新的智力贡献。部署在社会规模应用中的网络物理系统几乎总是与人类交互。在VeenaL项目中进行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主地面车辆，以及与人类操作员交互的半自主飞行器（无人机）。一种有原则的h-CPS设计方法--一种在人类参与的情况下获得系统行为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：（一）将研究纳入本科和研究生课程，特别是顶点项目;（二）利用PI现有工作的广泛在线课程内容;（三）强大的本科研究计划，以及（四）针对在校儿童的推广和暑期课程，重点是达到代表性不足的群体。

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.