Engineering Reliable Autonomous Systems: Challenges and Solutions

2026-06-22

AI Summary

Autonomous systems face critical challenges in engineering practice, particularly concerning verification and validation (V&V), real-world deployment, and safety-critical software architectures. This work addresses these issues by integrating, for the first time, the research communities of Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS) and Autonomous Robotics Engineering (AREA). Through a series of interdisciplinary workshops spanning academia and industry, the project systematically identifies effective existing approaches and outstanding open problems. Building on this synthesis, it proposes a comprehensive roadmap that unifies formal methods, safety-critical architectural principles, and practical engineering frameworks. The resulting guidance clarifies core challenges and viable solution pathways, facilitating the translation of theoretical advances into industrial applications and fostering future collaborative research between academia and industry.

Abstract

Engineering reliable autonomous systems is an important and growing topic in computer science. As autonomous systems become more prevalent, easy-to-use techniques for building them reliably are increasingly important. This workshop report captures and expands on the discussions at the Lorentz Center Workshop "Engineering Reliable Autonomous Systems" (ERAS), held from 10 to 14 June 2024. The workshop was co-organised by the organisers of the Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS) and the Workshop on Agents and Robots for reliable Engineered Autonomy (AREA). It brought together members of the FMAS and AREA communities, industry practitioners, and representatives from sectors where autonomous systems pose distinctive engineering challenges. The workshop focused on three main research topics: techniques for verification and validation of autonomous systems; engineering real-world autonomous systems; and software architectures for safe autonomous systems. Its main outcome is a catalogue of challenges in these areas and, most importantly, a pathway to solutions. Some challenges can already be tackled by techniques that are well known in academia but have not yet become regularly used in practice. Other challenges remain unresolved and require further research. This roadmap is intended to support future research and industrial collaboration.

Problem

• autonomous systems
• reliability
• verification and validation
• software architecture
• engineering challenges

Innovation

• reliable autonomous systems
• verification and validation
• software architectures
• formal methods
• engineering roadmap