Run-Time Assurance and Formal Methods Analysis Nonlinear System Applied to Nonlinear System Control

Exhaustive testing of complex and autonomous systems is intractable and cost prohibitive; however, design analysis techniques such as formal methods and design methodologies, including run-time assurance, could provide supplementary certification evidence early in system design. Incorporating formal methods analysis throughout the system design process provides an offline verification method to identify faults as they are introduced, which may drastically reduce the overall system development cost. In the event of a fault not identified during development, run-time assurance is a proposed online verification methodology to allow unproven autonomous controllers to perform within a predetermined envelope of acceptable behavior. In this research, a six-unit CubeSat attitude control subsystem is used as a challenge problem to evaluate the application of nontraditional verification methodologies, such as formal methods analysis and run-time assurance architectures. Strengths and weaknesses of the verification ...