CPS: Medium: Safety-Oriented Hybrid Verification for Medical Robotics

Abstract: The objective of this research is to develop methods and tools for designing, implementing and verifying medical robotics. The approach is to capture the computational work-flow of systems with cyber, physical and biological components, to verify that work-flow and to synthesize systems from the work-flow model. The focusing application of this research is MRI-guided, high-frequency ultrasonic tumor ablation. MRI-guided ultrasonic tumor ablation poses challenges beyond the scope of current verification techniques. Medicine is filled with highly non-linear biological systems, which puts them at the frontier of mathematically rigorous correctness checking and verification. For instance, in this research, guaranteeing the safety of a cancer patient undergoing treatment will require verifying against Pennes bioheat equation, a non-linear differential equation with dozens of environmental factors. This research tackles such complexity using tiers of abstractions to efficiently, precisely and safely approximate the behavior of each component of a system. To ensure a faithful implementation of controllers, this research will investigate synthesizing the control code directly from the verified model in a correct by construction manner. The project will help develop the most appropriate family of formal methods for handling the safety and correctness challenges in the area of medical robotics. It directly addresses the CPS agenda of methods and tools by proposing formal techniques that bridge the gap between the cyber and physical elements. It will train manpower in cross-disciplinary areas through new seminars, workshops and courses. And, last but not least, the project will make a direct humanitarian impact on the well-being of society.