An Integrated Runtime Verification and Simulation Testbed for UAM Hazard Assessment

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging transport solution for passengers or cargo at lower altitudes within urban and suburban areas using electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) air vehicles. The complexity of UAM technology strains design-time safety-assurance methods, which is driving the use of dynamic monitoring methods such as runtime verification to ensure safety of intended functionality (SOTIF). Although cyber-physical system (CPS) testing and design-assurance literature exists [1], there is little focus on UAM testbed concepts that evaluate runtime safety assurance. Such testbeds would help ensure safety coverage across a range of failure scenarios. In this paper, we present a new testbed architecture that systematically integrates formal runtime verification methods and tools into an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight simulator. The value of this testbed is to help evaluate and transition in-time hazard detection and mitigation methods (in realistic operational contexts) to higher levels of technology maturity. To the best of our knowledge this is the first testbed that integrates formal runtime verification tools into a eVTOL simulation testbed.