The Assuring Autonomy International Programme (AAIP) is spearheading research, training and standards in the safety of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). A major part of the programme is to develop a Body of Knowledge (BoK) that becomes the de facto reference source for professionals working in this field. This BoK will be a structured, curated knowledge base covering state-of-the-art techniques, methods and processes for engineering, assuring, deploying, regulating and operating RAS.

The AAIP will identify Critical Barriers to Assurance and Regulation (C-BARs). A C-BAR is a problem that must be solved for a particular system, in order to avoid one or more of the following risks:

•             A safe system cannot be deployed (losing the benefit of the technology);

•             An unsafe system is deployed (lack of clear evidence to assure operation);

•             The adoption of safe technology is slow;

•             There is a lack of progress in adoption in a particular domain;

•             The level of accidents and incidents leads to a backlash.

Addressing the C-BARs will be the focus of the BoK. The C-BARs will also be used to focus the demonstrator projects that are commissioned by the project.

We will introduce the Programme and discuss the C-BARs that we have identified. We will briefly consider how the demonstrator projects will help to address these issues.