Keynotes
An Autonomous Systems Developer Perspective on Assured Autonomy
Dr. Edward Tunstel
Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Motiv Space Systems, Inc.
Abstract:
As autonomous system capabilities roll out of research laboratories and industry and into societal use, users and stakeholders increasingly demand some form of assurance that they will function correctly and operate safely and securely. Research over the past decades has focused largely on enabling autonomy and ensuring its functional correctness. Of late, driven by gradual technological maturity and resulting demand, the research & development community has necessarily responded by beginning to confront the challenges of formal aspects of functional correctness as well as safety and security of autonomous systems. Through a lens of several decades of autonomous systems development focused on enabling and fielding autonomy, this keynote shares various thoughts and perspectives on aspects of autonomy assurance. Also shared are thoughts on the state of autonomous systems maturity, the scope of implementation approaches, and other considerations shaped by autonomy development perspectives. The aim is to offer food for thought and to invite consideration of how assured autonomy can be thought about and realized across a spectrum of applications.
Bio: Dr. Edward Tunstel is CTO of Motiv Space Systems, Inc., a motion control and space robotics company. He was previously with the Autonomous & Intelligent Systems Department at Raytheon Technologies Research Center during 2017-2021 as associate director of robotics providing leadership, expertise, and strategy development and leading a group focused on enabling autonomy and human-collaborative capabilities for manufacturing and service applications. During the prior decade, he was with Johns Hopkins APL as a senior roboticist in its research department and Intelligent Systems Center, and as space robotics & autonomous control lead in its space department. At APL he was engaged in modular open systems development efforts supporting advanced EOD robotic systems programs as well as robotics and autonomy research for future national security and space applications. Prior to APL he was with NASA JPL for close to two decades as a senior robotics engineer in its Autonomous Systems Division and group leader of its Advanced Robotic Controls Group. He worked on the NASA Mars Exploration Rovers mission as both a flight systems engineer responsible for autonomous navigation and associated V&V, and as rover engineering team lead for mobility and robotic arm subsystems during surface mission operations on Mars. Dr. Tunstel earned B.S. and M.E. degrees in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico. He is the Sr. Past President of the IEEE SMC Society and an IEEE Fellow with over 170 technical publications including five co-edited/authored books in his areas of research interest. In support of academic research, he has chaired advisory boards for an autonomy center of excellence focused on test & evaluation for heterogeneous teams of autonomous vehicles, and a university research program focused on secure & safe assured autonomy within unmanned air mobility vehicle systems.
IEEE P2817 - A Best Practices Guide for Verification of Autonomous Systems
Dr. Signe Redfield
Director, US NRL Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research
Abstract:
Verification of autonomous systems is an extremely challenging problem that is just starting to receive the attention it needs. Over the last few years, the IEEE Standards Association Standard Development Working Group P2817 has assembled a compilation of tips, pitfalls, and best practices around verification of autonomous systems. This talk addresses how the challenges of autonomous system development and experimentation interact with the challenges of assessing and certifying these systems to define best practices for their verification.
Bio:
Signe Redfield is the Director of the US NRL Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Her research interests include specification and evaluation of autonomous system capabilities and verification and testing of autonomous systems. She is a co-chair of the IEEE RAS technical committees on Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking for Robotic and Automation Systems and on Verification of Autonomous Systems, and leads the IEEE Standards Development Working Group P2817, “Guide for Verification of Autonomous Systems”. She was selected as one of Robohub’s 2019 “30 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About” and selected by the Naval Engineers Journal as One to Watch in their 2020 special issue on women in naval engineering.
Working at the intersection of Assurance and AI
William Martin
Program Manager, Information Innovation Office (I20)
DARPA
Abstract:
During this presentation Mr. Martin will discuss research activities at the intersection of Assurance and AI in which he has been engaged while serving within DARPA’s Information Innovation Office.
Bios:
William Martin joined DARPA as a program manager in the Information Innovation Office (I2O) in April 2021. His research interests include the development of capabilities in support of achieving continuous reasoning of complex high assurance systems.
Brad joins DARPA from the National Security Agency (NSA), where he has served in a variety of roles, most recently as acting technical director and cybersecurity subject matter expert of the Laboratory for Advanced Cybersecurity Research. While at NSA, Martin focused on conducting and sponsoring collaborative research in technologies and techniques that aim to advance the security of America's information systems of tomorrow. In particular, these efforts focused on domain-specific languages, system analysis, and trustworthy AI. Martin has a strong history in building communities in the area of high confidence software and systems research and development. He initiated research groups at NSA supporting the development of scientific foundations and technologies in cybersecurity and privacy.
Brad serves as co-chair of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program's Computing-Enabled Networked Physical Systems (CNPS) Interagency Working Group (IWG). The CNPS IWG coordinates federal R&D to advance and assure information technology-enabled systems that integrate the cyber/information, physical, and human elements. Additionally, he previously served as the chair of the Special Cyber Operations Research and Engineering (SCORE) Subcommittee, a Subcommittee of the NSTC Committee on Homeland & National Security. The SCORE Subcommittee is focused on enhancing coordination and collaboration across the National Security Systems community, and is specifically scoped for science and technology for national security needs in cyber.
