The ROBOPILOT project, led by Charge Automotive, is developing an autonomous delivery vehicle to SAE level 4, where no human control is required for particular tasks. The Trustworthy Systems Laboratory, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, TVS and Loughborough University have come together to apply state-of-the-art verification techniques, and tools developed by TVS to the problem of autonomous system verification.

Autonomous vehicles are likely to be one of the most significant technical innovations of the modern age, matched only by the breadth of circumstances that the system must respond correctly to. The ROBOPILOT delivery vehicle must work across a large geographic area in a full range of environmental and weather conditions, testing the ability of the automation technology to the limit. This in turn requires rigorous verification techniques to identify faults ahead of time, preventing accidents and building trust.

New tools for model based test generation, and in particular coverage directed verification, have been developed by TVS, and in ROBOPILOT the project partners will apply these new tools to the verification problem but also build a greater understanding of the challenges in verifying SAE level 4 automation.  With that knowledge, and a body of case studies and evidence, novel techniques can be proposed to address the challenges, to be shared with the academic and industrial community.

ROBOPILOT shares a common cause and domain with the CAPRI project, but focuses on a different application of automative technology. This distinction will allow the techniques developed between either project to be assessed for their generality, or whether they are appropriate to only certain technologies.