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 onlyunder particular circumstances, for specific activities. the environmentneeds to be tailored to align with these design boundaries, ensuringthat technical systems operate as intended. this paper proposes thatinsights from resilience engineering can enhance the self-sufficiency ofso-called autonomous systems, consequently bolstering their adaptivecapacity in unforeseen or unpredicted scenarios. two cases of autono-mous systems are examined to illustrate how this enhancement can beachieved. the conclusion drawn is that the resilience envelope of a sys-tem can be augmented by enabling the system to adapt to multipledesign cases, by defining and prioritizing the core values of the system,and by designing the system to possess a framework for situationsrather than being confined to a singular situational frame. the implica-tions for the design of human-machine systems are also discussed.