No robot is an island - what properties should an autonomous system have in order to be resilient?

Abstract

Autonomous systems are inherently designed to be self-sufficient only under particular circumstances, for specific activities. The environment needs to be tailored to align with these design boundaries, ensuring that technical systems operate as intended. This paper proposes that insights from resilience engineering can enhance the self-sufficiency of so-called autonomous systems, consequently bolstering their adaptive capacity in unforeseen or unpredicted scenarios. Two cases of autonomous systems are examined to illustrate how this enhancement can be achieved. The conclusion drawn is that the resilience envelope of a system can be augmented by enabling the system to adapt to multiple design cases, by defining and prioritizing the core values of the system, and by designing the system to possess a framework for situations rather than being confined to a singular situational frame. The implications for the design of human-machine systems are also discussed.