Towards Explainable and Trustworthy Autonomous Physical Systems

The safe deployment of autonomous physical systems in real-world scenarios requires them to be explainable and trustworthy, especially in critical domains. In contrast with 'black-box' systems, explainable and trustworthy autonomous physical systems will lend themselves to easy assessments by system designers and regulators. This promises to pave ways for easy improvements that can lead to enhanced performance, and as well, increased public trust. In this one-day virtual workshop, we aim to gather a globally distributed group of researchers and practitioners to discuss the opportunities and social challenges in the design, implementation, and deployment of explainable and trustworthy autonomous physical systems, especially in a post-pandemic era. Interactions will be fostered through panel discussions and a series of spotlight talks. To ensure lasting impact of the workshop, we will conduct a pre-workshop survey which will examine the public perception of the trustworthiness of autonomous physical systems. Further, we will publish a summary report providing details about the survey as well as the identified challenges resulting from the workshop's panel discussions.