Science of Computer Programming special issue
on
Advances in Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems
2024 – 2026

Autonomy, or the ability for a system to make decisions without human intervention, enables the system to react flexibly to its environment. Autonomous systems need careful verification to ensure that their behaviour is safe, secure, and free of other ethical harms. Autonomous systems present unique challenges for formal methods, including: modelling the system’s dynamic environment; verifying the system’s decision-making capabilities; and using formal methods results as evidence for certification or regulation.

Since 2019, the International Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS) has provided a venue that brings together researchers in this intersectional domain to present and discuss their work.

This special issue invites authors from the 2024, 2025, and 2026 editions of the workshop, and new work that has not featured in the workshop, to showcase the advances of formal methods for autonomous systems over the past three years.

Submission Open: 27th of November 2026
Final manuscript submission deadline: 26th of March 2027

Guest editors:

  • Matt Luckcuck, University of Nottingham
  • Maike Schwammberger, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • Mengwei Xu, Universiy of Newcastle

Please, find more details including directions for submission on the journals Call for Papers page.

Guest editors

  • Matt Luckcuck, University of Nottingham
  • Maike Schwammberger, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
  • Mengwei Xu, Universiy of Newcastle

Keywords: Formal Verification; Autonomous Systems; Robotic Systems; Runtime Verification; Formal Requirements; Formal Methods.