Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Ali Baheri

Committee Member

Jason Gross

Committee Member

Guilherme Pereira

Abstract

The rigorous safety verification of control systems in critical applications is essential, given their in creasing complexity and integration into everyday life. Simulation-based falsification approaches play a pivotal role in the safety verification of control systems, particularly within critical applications. These methods systematically explore the operational space of systems to identify configurations that result in violations of safety specifications. However, the effectiveness of traditional simulation based falsification is frequently limited by the high dimensionality of the search space and the sub stantial computational resources required for exhaustive exploration. This thesis presents Bayesian Evolutionary Approach for COuNterexample, or BEACON, a novel framework that enhances the falsification process through a combination of Bayesian optimization and covariance matrix adap tation evolutionary strategy. By exploiting quantitative metrics to evaluate how closely a system adheres to safety specifications, BEACON advances the state-of-the-art in testing methodologies. It employs a model-based test point selection approach, designed to facilitate exploration across dy namically evolving search zones to efficiently uncover safety violations. Our findings demonstrate that BEACON not only locates a higher percentage of counterexamples compared to standalone BO but also achieves this with significantly fewer simulations than required by CMA-ES, highlighting its potential to optimize the verification process of control systems. This framework offers a promising direction for achieving thorough and resource-efficient safety evaluations, ensuring the reliability of control systems in critical applications. A Python implementation of the algorithm can be found at https://github.com/SAILRIT/BO-CMA.

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