Edge AI assurance: A systematic mapping study

IF 4.3 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107908

Clara Ayora, Arturo S. García, Jose Luis de la Vara

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context

In critical domains, assurance corresponds to the set of activities to provide confidence that a system can be deemed dependable, e.g., safe and secure. This essential system and software engineering process is usually conducted according to standards. For novel applications running at the edge and using artificial intelligence (AI), how to conduct assurance in a systematic way is still under study.

Objective

The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of current Edge AI assurance considerations. Our interest lies in contributing insights that offer a forward-looking perspective on what is essential in this research field.

Method

We conducted a systematic mapping study (SMS) to characterize how Edge AI assurance is addressed in existing literature. The SMS was built on 38 studies, selected through a multi-stage process, from 3113 studies published between 2019 and 2025. The 38 studies were deeply analysed focusing on seven research questions about the main key Edge AI assurance aspects: dependability concerns, application domains, assurance standards, assurance evidence, dependability justification techniques, and edge and AI characteristics.

Results

We found ten dependability concerns that have been addressed (e.g., safety and security), six application domains (e.g., Industry 4.0), eight assurance standards and regulations (e.g., ISO 26262), 27 types of assurance evidence (e.g., architecture specification), three dependability justification techniques (e.g., argumentation), five AI-specific characteristics (e.g., machine learning algorithms) and five edge-specific characteristics (e.g., network).

Conclusions

The paper is, to our knowledge, the only existing review on the topic of Edge AI assurance. The results are relevant to practitioners seeking a better grasp on this field as well as researchers to find new research gaps. We have also identified research areas where more effort can be undertaken (e.g., multi-concern assurance).

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边缘人工智能保证：系统的映射研究

上下文在关键领域，保证对应于一组活动，这些活动提供了对系统可以被认为是可靠的信心，例如，安全可靠。这个重要的系统和软件工程过程通常是根据标准进行的。对于在边缘运行并使用人工智能（AI）的新型应用程序，如何以系统的方式进行保证仍在研究中。本文的目的是提供对当前边缘人工智能保证考虑因素的全面理解。我们的兴趣在于为这个研究领域提供前瞻性的观点。方法我们进行了系统的映射研究（SMS），以描述现有文献中如何解决边缘人工智能保证问题。SMS建立在38项研究的基础上，这些研究是通过多阶段过程从2019年至2025年发表的3113项研究中选出的。对38项研究进行了深入分析，重点关注关于主要关键边缘人工智能保证方面的七个研究问题：可靠性问题、应用领域、保证标准、保证证据、可靠性证明技术以及边缘和人工智能特征。结果我们发现已经解决了10个可靠性问题（例如，安全和安保），6个应用领域（例如，工业4.0），8个保证标准和法规（例如，ISO 26262）， 27种保证证据（例如，架构规范），3种可靠性论证技术（例如，论证），5种ai特定特征（例如，机器学习算法）和5种边缘特定特征（例如，网络）。据我们所知，这篇论文是关于边缘人工智能保证主题的唯一现有综述。这些结果对于寻求更好地掌握这一领域的实践者以及寻找新的研究空白的研究人员都是相关的。我们还确定了可以进行更多工作的研究领域（例如，多关注点保证）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.