This book provides guidance on the verification and validation of neural networks/adaptive systems. Considering every process, activity, and task in the lifecycle, it supplies methods and techniques that will help the developer or V&V practitioner be confident that they are supplying an adaptive/neural network system that will perform as intended. Additionally, it is structured to be used as a cross-reference to the IEEE 1012 standard.

The Dryden Flight Research Center V&V working group and NASA Ames Research Center Automated Software Engineering (ASE) group collaborated to prepare this report. The purpose is to describe V&V processes and methods for certification of neural networks for aerospace applications, particularly adaptive flight control systems like Intelligent Flight Control Systems (IFCS) that use neural networks. This report is divided into the following two sections: 1) Overview of Adaptive Systems; and 2) V&V Processes/Methods.Mackall, Dale and Nelson, Stacy and Schumman, Johann and Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)Ames Research Center; Armstrong Flight Research CenterAEROSPACE SYSTEMS; NEURAL NETS; SOFTWARE ENGINEERING; PROGRAM VERIFICATION (COMPUTERS); ADAPTIVE CONTROL; FLIGHT CONTROL; PERFORMANCE TESTS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS; AIRCRAFT STRUCTURES

Neural networks are members of a class of software that have the potential to enable intelligent computational systems capable of simulating characteristics of biological thinking and learning. Currently no standards exist to verify and validate neural network-based systems. NASA Independent Verification and Validation Facility has contracted the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc. to perform research on this topic and develop a comprehensive guide to performing V&V on adaptive systems, with emphasis on neural networks used in safety-critical or mission-critical applications. Methods and Procedures for the Verification and Validation of Artificial Neural Networks is the culmination of the first steps in that research. This volume introduces some of the more promising methods and techniques used for the verification and validation (V&V) of neural networks and adaptive systems. A comprehensive guide to performing V&V on neural network systems, aligned with the IEEE Standard for Software Verification and Validation, will follow this book.

The three volume set LNCS 4232, LNCS 4233, and LNCS 4234 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2006, held in Hong Kong, China in October 2006. The 386 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 1175 submissions.

The 3rd Workshop on Formal Approaches to Agent-Based Systems (FAABS-III) was held at the Greenbelt Marriott Hotel (near NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) in April 2004 in conjunction with the IEEE Computer Society. The first FAABS workshop was help in April 2000 and the second in October 2002. Interest in agent-based systems continues to grow and this is seen in the wide range of conferences and journals that are addressing the research in this area as well as the prototype and developmental systems that are coming into use. Our third workshop, FAABS-III, was held in April, 2004. This volume contains the revised papers and posters presented at that workshop. The Organizing Committee was fortunate in having significant support in the planning and organization of these events, and were privileged to have wor- renowned keynote speakers Prof. J Moore (FAABS-I), Prof. Sir Roger Penrose (FAABS-II), and Prof. John McCarthy (FAABS-III), who spoke on the topic of se- aware computing systems, auguring perhaps a greater interest in autonomic computing as part of future FAABS events. We are grateful to all who attended the workshop, presented papers or posters, and participated in panel sessions and both formal and informal discussions to make the workshop a great success. Our thanks go to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Codes 588 and 581 (Software Engineering Laboratory) for their financial support and to the IEEE Computer Society (Technical Committee on Complexity in Computing) for their sponsorship and organizational assistance.