ABSTRACT
Robotic computer systems have become increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life and this has led to a need to develop safe and reliable robot systems. There are areas where robotic systems are required to perform some critical functions: (i) transport-related applications such as intra-logistics, automated parking garages and autonomous vehicles; (ii) mining-related applications such as automated mine vehicles and mine sensing; (iii) defense force-related applications such as autonomous vehicles and (iv) hospital-related applications such as surgical procedures. In such applications, any failure of a robotic system may result in more than just a mere inconvenience, such as incorrect information by a robotic receptionist, loss of time or even in a worse case may cause catastrophic loss of human life in the case of surgical and mining automation. To ensure safety and reliability of these systems, the four main verification techniques are usually considered: (a) theorem proving, (b) model checking, (c) peer reviews and (d) simulation and testing in the context of the practical robotic systems, for both hardware and software sub-systems as deemed appropriate.
