Autonomous Systems Safety
Safety and Reliability of Autonomous Systems Research Unit
SARAS
SARAS is a Research Unit at the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences - UCLA. It is an interdisciplinary organization focusing on autonomous system safety, reliability, and security. We aim to help all stakeholders design, build, operate, and certify safe and reliable autonomous systems. We help governments, agencies, manufacturers, and other researchers in creating frameworks under which reliable and safe autonomous systems are designed and operated.
I have recently assumed the position of Research Coordinator at SARAS. In this role, I aim at developing partnerships with other research institutions, governmental agencies and industries; developing project proposals, and creating links between researchers for developing research on and products for autonomous systems safety, reliability, and resilience.
Operational Safety For Level 4 Automated Driving System Fleets
FUNDED BY NHTSA
Project in cooperation with Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC) and ToXcel, funded by the U.S. DOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The project aims to identify safety risks associated with Level 4 ADS Mobility as a Service (MaaS) operations and the fleet operator's responsibilities and activities to mitigate such risks. To identify the operators’ operational safety responsibilities and propose risk mitigation actions, the team will perform a risk assessment of ADS MaaS operations. The project tasks include: i) conducting hazard identification of Level 4 ADS MaaS operations, ii) performing risk assessment, iii) identifying fleet operators’ operational safety responsibilities, iv) proposing activities that could help fleets mitigate risks and achieve operational safety responsibilities, v) evaluating the mitigation activities.
I am a principal researcher of this project. In this role, I have been developing the framework and methodology for hazard identification using Event Sequence Diagrams (ESDs), Fault Trees (FTs), Concurrent Task Analysis (CoTA) and Systems Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA)
I also supervise a Graduate Student Researcher and an undergraduate student.
Concurrent Task Analysis For Autonomous Systems Safety
COTA
This project concerns the development and extension of Concurrent Task Analysis (CoTA) for modeling of human, hardware, and software tasks during autonomous systems’ operation. Application for hazard identification, procedures development, failure propagation identification, and others.
The COTA was initially developed in the context of Maritime Autonomous Surface Vessels (MaSS). It has been applied to Autonomous Remotely Operated Vehicles (AROVs). Current developments include extensions and formalization of task types and applications to Autonomous Driving Systems and Autonomous Ferries operations.
While working at NTNU, Dr. Christoph Thieme (SINTEF - Norway) and I developed the CoTA for the safety analysis of autonomous vessels. We continue to apply the CoTA to our projects and extend the method with additional re-description rules.
International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety
IWASS
The International Workshop for Autonomous System Safety (IWASS) is a joint effort by the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
IWASS is an invitation-only event that gathers key experts in autonomous systems safety from academia, industry, and regulatory agencies. IWASS aims to identify common challenges related to safety, reliability, and security (SRS) of autonomous systems, covering autonomous maritime, marine, land vehicles and aerospace systems, and to discuss and propose possible solutions for the identified challenges.
IWASS had three successful editions, and it is heading to its fourth one in September 2023, in Southampton (IUK).
I initiated IWASS together with Dr. Christoph Thieme, Prof. Ingrid Utne and Prof. Ali Mosleh. As part of the organizing committee, my role includes strategic tasks such as identifying key topics of autonomous systems SRS to be discussed, stakeholders to be invited, and organizing the reports; and operational tasks such as defining the host-countries for the workshop.
Selected Publications
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THIEME, C.; RAMOS, M.; HOLTE, E. JOHNSEN, S. MYKLEBUST, T. SMOGELI, Ø. New Design Solutions and Procedures for Ensuring Meaningful Human Control and Interaction with Autonomy: Automated Ferries in Profile. In: Johansson, T.M., Fernández, J.E., Dalaklis, D., Pastra, A., Skinner, J.A. (eds) Autonomous Vessels in Maritime Affairs. Studies in National Governance and Emerging Technologies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24740-8_11
RAMOS, M.; SANKARAN, K.; GUARRO, S.; MOSLEH, A.; RAMEZANI, A.; ARJOUNILLA, A. The need for and conceptual design of an AI model-based Integrated Flight Advisory System. Journal of Risk and Reliability, March 2022. DOI: 10.1177/1748006X221083379
LI, T.; HAN, X.; MA, J.; RAMOS, M.; LEE, C. Operational Safety of Automated and Human Driving in Mixed Traffic Environments: A Perspective of Car-Following Behavior. Journal of Risk and Reliability, October 2021. DOI: 10.1177/1748006X211050696
YANG, X.; UTNE, I. B.; SANDØY, S.; RAMOS, M.; ROKSETH, B. A systems-theoretic approach to hazard identification of marine systems with dynamic autonomy. Ocean Engineering, v. 217, 2020. ;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2020.107930.
RAMOS, M.; THIEME, C.; UTNE, I.; MOSLEH, A. A generic approach to analysing failures in human – System interaction in autonomy. Safety Science, v. 129. September 2020. ;https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104808.
RAMOS, M.; THIEME, C.; UTNE, I.; MOSLEH, A. Human-System Concurrent Task Analysis for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship Operation and Safety. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, v. 195, March 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2019.106697
RAMOS, M.; UTNE, I.; MOSLEH, A. Collision Avoidance on Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships: Operators’ Tasks and Human Failure Event. Safety Science, v. 116, p33-44, July 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.02.038
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Guest Editor, Special Issue on Autonomous Systems Safety, Reliability and Security for the Journal of Risk and Reliability (JRR) (2020);
Co-Editor, Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety (IWASS), published by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and UCLA Risk Institute, 2019;
Co-Editor, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Autonomous Systems Safety 2021
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Conference Proceedings
RAMOS, M.; CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; MA, J.; MOSLEH, A. Automated Driving Systems Operating as Mobility as a Service: Operational Risks and SAE J3016 Standard. Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), Orlando, Florida, 2023.
CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; RAMOS, M.; MA, J.; DROGUETT, E.; MOSLEH, A. Modeling Fleet Operations of Autonomous Driving Systems in Mobility as a Service for Safety Risk Analysis. In Proceedings of the 32nd European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL), Dublin, 2022.
CORREA-JULLIAN, C.; MCCULLOUGH, J.; RAMOS, M.; MA, J.; DROGUETT, E. Safety Hazard Identification for Autonomous Driving Systems Fleet Operations in Mobility as a Service. Accepted for publication at: Proceedings of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference PSAM 16, Hawaii, 2022
RAMOS, M.; MOSLEH, A. Human Role in Failure of Autonomous Systems: A Human Reliability Perspective. 2021 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), pp. 1-6. DOI: 10.1109/RAMS48097.2021.9605790. 2021
RAMOS, M.; MOURA, M.; LINS, I.; RAMOS, F. The Use of Game Theory for Autonomous Systems Safety: An Overview. Proceedings of the 31st European Safety and Reliability Conference ESREL 2021. Angers, 2021
RAMOS, M.; THIEME, C.; YANG, X. Human-System Concurrent Task Analysis: An Application to Autonomous Remotely Operated Vehicle Operations. Proceedings to ESREL 2020 PSAM 15, Venice, 2020
RAMOS, M.; UTNE, I.; MOSLEH, A. On factors affecting autonomous ships operators performance in a Shore Control Center. Proceedings of the Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference PSAM 14, Los Angeles, 2018
RAMOS, M; MOSLEH, A., UTNE, I.; VINNEM, J-E. Accounting for human failure in autonomous ship operations. Proceedings of the European Safety and Reliability Conference ESREL 2018. Trondheim, 2018
Human Reliability
Extension and Enhancement of Phoenix Human Reliability Analysis Methodology
FUNDED BY THE JAPANESE NUCLEAR REGULATORY AUTHORITY (J-NRA)
The project aims to develop further the Phoenix Human Reliability Analysis methodology for Nuclear Power Plants, to support J-NRA analyses. The project was initiated in 2018 and, since then, has been renovated five times. The extensions and enhancements to Phoenix methodology include validation through application to different scenarios and tailoring the elements to J-NRA applications. Recent extensions include Phoenix for digital control rooms, external hazard events, and inspection activities.
I am the Principal Investigator of this project. In this role, I meet with J-NRA engineers to understand their needs and assess how we can support their human reliability activities. I conduct research, write reports and present the results to J-NRA inspectors and engineers.