A Provisional Approach to Maintaining Verification and Validation Capability in Self-Adapting Robots

Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are composed of multiple physical and computing components that are deeply intertwined, operate on differing spatial and temporal scales, and interact with one another in fluid, context dependent, manners. Cyber Physical Systems often include smart components that use local adaptation to improve whole system performance or to provide damage response. Evolvable and Adaptive Hardware (EAH) components, at least conceptually, are often represented as an enabling technology for such smart components. This paper will outline one approach to applying CPS thinking to better address a growing need to address Verification and Validation (V&V) questions related to the use of EAH smart components. It will argue that, perhaps fortuitously, the very adaptations EAH smart components employ for performance improvement may also be employed to maintain V&V capability.