Soteria: A Formal Digital-Twin-Enabled Framework for Safety-Assurance of Latency-Aware Cyber-Physical Systems

Verifying the safety of latency-aware cyber-physical systems is both critical and challenging due to the interaction between continuous physical dynamics and discrete computational constraints. This paper introduces SOTERIA, a formal framework that integrates digital twins for ensuring safety in these systems. SOTERIA models both the physical dynamics and computational behavior, enabling integrated verification within a specific operating environment. This approach goes beyond conventional methods that either treat physical and computational aspects separately or rely on overly conservative worst-case analyses. By modeling hybrid dynamics alongside computational models and operating environments, SOTERIA verifies both functional and timing correctness. Leveraging established verification tools, SOTERIA determines whether end-to-end latencies meet formal specifications, bridging the gap between computational and physical requirements. We first introduce a simple example of a 1D adaptive cruise control system to illustrate its effectiveness. We then present findings from a case study using the F1Tenth racing car platform and the UPPAAL tool to demonstrate SOTERIA's effectiveness in realistic scenarios, enabling safety verification that was previously infeasible with conventional schedulability analyses. This work underscores the importance of an integrated verification approach for enhancing safety and reliability in autonomous systems.