Fast, Safe, and Perspicuous Run-Time Planning ((06) C06)

• Subject Area: Software Engineering and Programming Languages ; Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389792660

AI systems choosing actions in dynamic environments need to react to environment behaviour in real-time. Neural networks are rapidly gaining traction in tackling this, by learning a policy at design-time, so that at run-time, it suffices to call the policy to obtain the next action to execute. This form of run-time planning is fast, but it comes with severe safety and perspicuity issues. The vision of Project C6 is to address these problems through a range of methods relying on declarative models, or simulators, of the environment. This encompasses policy safeguarding – trying to avoid unsafe situations at run-time, verification and testing of policy behaviour, explication of policy decisions, policy-behaviour visualisation, and policy re-training leveraging information which is provided by all these techniques.

• DFG Programme: CRC/Transregios
• Subproject of: TRR 248: Foundations of Perspicuous Software Systems - Enabling Comprehension in a Cyber-Physical World
• Applicant Institution: Universität des Saarlandes
• Project Heads: Professorin Dr. Maria Christakis; Professor Dr. Matthias Hein, until 12/2022; Professor Dr. Jörg Hoffmann; Professorin Dr. Isabel Valera, since 1/2023