Towards Physical Disturbance Robustness in Organic Computing Systems using MOMDPs

Abstract:
Robustness, the ability to withstand disturbances while remaining functioning in a desired or at least tolerated way, is a central part of autonomous systems. However, existing approaches mostly fail to explicitly consider the occurrence of physical disturbances, i.e., machine failures or degradation of mechanical components. These disturbances differ from software-related failures such that their healing involves maintenance activities, which are predominantly executed by humans. Moreover, physical disturbances often can be predicted. In this concept paper, we introduce a novel notion for an integrity measure, to evaluate the influence of physical disturbances on autonomous systems. Furthermore, we present a formal problem statement in form of a Mixed Observability Markov Decision Process that can be used to capture the interaction between physical disturbances, integrity and human intervention in order to be able to maintain a robust system.