PANEL
Autonomous system safety, risk, and security
The European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL) held a Panel dedicated to IWASS.
ESREL is the key annual event for meetings and knowledge exchange in the area of risk assessment, risk management, and optimization of the performance of socio-technological systems in Europe, and among the most important internationally.
Description
This special session will be organized in a panel format for discussing autonomous systems safety, risk, and security (SRS). The session will discuss the results of the third International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety (IWASS) and the early findings of the 4th IWASS, organized together with ESREL. Key experts will be invited to discuss autonomous systems SRS from an interdisciplinary and cross-industrial perspective.
The panel is expected to present the results from IWASS discussions and make them more accessible to a broader audience. Participants may present additional thoughts on the discussions and workshop outcomes.
Motivation
IWASS is organized by the Department of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering at the University of Stuttgart.
Autonomous systems on land, in the air, and on the sea are being widely applied. The safety issues concerning these systems are the focus of many research projects and publications, yet each industry and academic field attempts to solve arising safety issues on its own. Given the identifiable similarities, could common solutions be envisioned and developed? Answering these and related questions motivates this panel as an opportunity for an interdisciplinary discussion on risks, challenges, and foremost potential solutions concerning safe autonomous systems and operations.
Objective
This session aims to use the results of the Third IWASS, early findings of the 4th IWASS, and participants expertise to discuss autonomous systems SRS, identifying key challenges, and possible solutions.
Organizers
Thieme, Christoph A., christoph.thieme@ntnu.no, SINTEF
Ramos, Marilia, marilia.ramos@ucla.edu, University of California Los Angeles
Utne, Ingrid B., ingrid.b.utne@ntnu.no, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Mosleh, Ali, mosleh@ucla.edu, University of California Los Angeles
Morozov, Andrey, andrey.morozov@ias.uni-stuttgart.de, University of Stuttgart
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Presentations at ESREL
Challenges and Solutions for Autonomous Systems Safety – Findings from Three International Workshops (IWASS)
Ingrid Bouwer Utne (Department of Marine Technology, NTNU, Norway).
Christoph Alexander Thieme (Department of Software Engineering, Safety, and Security, SINTEF Digital, Norway)
Marilia Ramos (B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA)
Ali Mosleh (B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA)
Autonomous systems intend to be a stepping-stone towards safer and more efficient operations. Extensive mapping and monitoring of land, space, and the oceans, renewable energy harvesting and production, inspection of physical structures difficult to access, operation of subsea systems, land-based, maritime, and air transportation are emerging areas for high autonomy. Still, the corresponding advancements in software, hardware, and interactions with humans and the environment involve complexities that pose major challenges concerning safety, reliability, and security (SRS). Society is hesitating to allow for widespread use of highly autonomous cars or ships. The industrial use of autonomous systems depends on effective and transparent standards for safety, verification, and certification, for which it is essential to develop credible methodologies for assessing risk, acceptance criteria, testing and verification. Hence, risk management must become an important driver in the early design process and during operation. Autonomous systems must have sufficient integrity, be capable of determining if it can continue operating with degraded performance, and cooperate with human operators. Since 2019, the International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety (IWASS) has been bringing together multidisciplinary experts from academia, industry, and authorities to discuss the SRS challenges and potential solutions. This paper aims to provide an overview of the discussions and results from the three editions of IWASS and discuss potential ways to enhance SRS in future developments and implementations of autonomous systems.
