A Formal Semantics for Brahms

The formal analysis of computational processes is by now a well-established field. However, in practical scenarios, the problem of how we can formally verify interactions with humans still remains. In this paper we are concerned with addressing this problem. Our overall goal is to provide formal verification techniques for human-agent teamwork, particularly astronaut-robot teamwork on future space missions and human-robot interactions in health-care scenarios. However, in order to carry out our formal verification, we must first have some formal basis for this activity. In this paper we provide this by detailing a formal operational semantics for Brahms, a modelling/simulation framework for human-agent teamwork that has been developed and extensively used within NASA. This provides a first, but important, step towards our overall goal by establishing a formal basis for describing human-agent teamwork, which can then lead on to verification techniques.