System to establish trustworthiness of autonomous agent

• US 8,898,736 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Jacobs, James L.
• Primary Examiner(s): LEMMA, SAMSON B
• Application Number:
  US13/662,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20130111553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 757 Days
• Field of Search: 726/3, 726/25
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/57 Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227

Abstract

A system to establish a trustworthiness of an autonomous agent is provided. The system includes a plurality of computing devices disposed in signal communication with one another via a network, at least one of the plurality of the computing devices being configured to serve as a host server for an autonomous agent trustworthiness establishing (AATE) application. The AATE application is configured to define a micro-theory of trust elements, apply trust building patterns to the autonomous agent, provide a visualization of autonomous agent skill claims and constraints via the network and provide a recommendation tracking system for sharing and tracking a reputation of the autonomous agent during testing and deployment via the network.

Claims

1. A system to establish a trustworthiness of an autonomous agent, the system comprising:

a plurality of computing devices disposed in signal communication with one another via a network;

at least one of the plurality of the computing devices being configured to serve as a host server for an autonomous agent trustworthiness establishing (AATE) application where the autonomous agent comprises a proxy for a human operator of hardware designed to operate remotely and without human control, the AATE application being configured to;

define a micro-theory of trust elements,

apply trust building patterns to the autonomous agent,

provide a visualization of autonomous agent skill claims and constraints via the network,

provide a recommendation tracking system for sharing and tracking a reputation of the autonomous agent during testing and deployment via the network and for providing review and reference information for the autonomous agent, and

feed-back the review and reference information for autonomous agent improvement and to build human operator trust.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein defining the micro-theory of trust elements comprises defining a foundational ontology supportive of a sharing of semantic models of the autonomous agent and goals.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein applying trust building patterns comprises building a web-services tool for attaching certificates to at least the skill claims.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the recommendation tracking system further provides pedigree and resume information along with the review and reference information for the autonomous agent.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the pedigree information comprises design, test and construction information of the autonomous agent.

6. The system according to claim 4, wherein the resume information pertains to actual use, reviews and acquired qualifications of the autonomous agent.

7. A method for establishing trustworthiness of an autonomous agent, the method comprising:

disposing a plurality of computing devices disposed in signal communication with one another via a network;

at least one of the plurality of the computing devices being configured to serve as a host server for an autonomous agent trustworthiness establishing (AATE) application where the autonomous agent comprises a proxy for a human operator of hardware designed to operate remotely and without human control, the AATE application being configured to;

define a micro-theory of trust elements,

apply trust building patterns to the autonomous agent,

provide a visualization of autonomous agent skill claims and constraints via the network,

provide a recommendation tracking system for sharing and tracking a reputation of the autonomous agent during testing and deployment via the network and for providing review and reference information for the autonomous agent, and

feed-back the review and reference information for autonomous agent improvement and to build human operator trust.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein defining the micro-theory of trust elements comprises defining a foundational ontology supportive of a sharing of semantic models of the autonomous agent and goals.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein applying trust building patterns comprises building a web-services tool for attaching certificates to at least the skill claims.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the recommendation tracking system further provides pedigree and resume information along with the review and reference information for the autonomous agent.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the pedigree information comprises design, test and construction information of the autonomous agent.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the resume information pertains to actual use, reviews and acquired qualifications of the autonomous agent.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and on which instructions are stored for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method for establishing trustworthiness of an autonomous agent, the method comprising:

disposing a plurality of computing devices disposed in signal communication with one another via a network;

at least one of the plurality of the computing devices being configured to serve as a host server for an autonomous agent trustworthiness establishing (AATE) application where the autonomous agent comprises a proxy for a human operator of hardware designed to operate remotely and without human control, the AATE application being configured to;

define a micro-theory of trust elements by generation of a robust foundational ontology supportive of model and goal sharing, the micro-theory of trust elements being usable to track assertions of competence and trustworthiness of the autonomous agent,

apply trust building patterns to the autonomous agent by way of a web-services tool for attaching certificates to human-authored assertions of autonomous agent skills and capabilities,

provide a visualization of autonomous agent skill claims and constraints on acceptable use contexts of the autonomous agent via the network,

provide a recommendation tracking system for sharing and tracking a reputation of the autonomous agent during testing and deployment via the network, wherein the recommendation tracking system further provides pedigree, resume, review and reference information for the autonomous agent, and

feed-back the review and reference information for autonomous agent improvement and to build human operator trust.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the pedigree information comprises design, test and construction information of the autonomous agent.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the resume information pertains to actual use, reviews and acquired qualifications of the autonomous agent.