A generic and modular system architecture for trustworthy, autonomous applications

Abstract

We propose a generic architecture to facilitate the systematic design of autonomous, adaptive and safe applications. We specify generic modules including a trustworthiness enforcement layer dedicated to ensure the system's functional stability as seen by the human owner. Instead of building a monolithic system, we encourage modularization based on the cognitive function of the components. A key premise is that domain knowledge is explicitly specified as a parameter of each application, with the side effect of enabling seamless integration with other remote autonomous or infrastructure applications. The design choices we have made are exemplified on a demonstrative travel management application. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.