# SOTER: A Runtime Assurance Framework for Programming Safe Robotics Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.07921 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.07921/

## Key facts

- Cited by 25 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 23 Aug 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [Software Engineering for AI-Based Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01984/) (2021)
- [VerifyLLM: LLM-Based Pre-Execution Task Plan Verification for Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05118/) (2025)
- [Runtime Safety Assurance for Learning-enabled Control of Autonomous Driving Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.13446/) (2021)
- [Embodied Foundation Models at the Edge: A Survey of Deployment Constraints and Mitigation Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.16952/) (2026)
- [Confidence Composition for Monitors of Verification Assumptions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.03782/) (2021)
- [Ablation Study of How Run Time Assurance Impacts the Training and Performance of Reinforcement Learning Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.04117/) (2022)
- [Dynamic Simplex: Balancing Safety and Performance in Autonomous Cyber Physical Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09750/) (2023)
- [Systems Challenges for Trustworthy Embodied Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03413/) (2022)
- [The Use of the Simplex Architecture to Enhance Safety in Deep-Learning-Powered Autonomous Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21014/) (2025)
- [ScenicProver: A Framework for Compositional Probabilistic Verification of Learning-Enabled Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.02164/) (2025)
- [EmbodiedGovBench: A Benchmark for Governance, Recovery, and Upgrade Safety in Embodied Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11174/) (2026)
- [KnowSafe: Combined Knowledge and Data Driven Hazard Mitigation in Artificial Pancreas Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07460/) (2023)
- [Savvy: Trustworthy Autonomous Vehicles Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14580/) (2024)
- [Formal Verification of Neural Certificates Done Dynamically](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11987/) (2025)
- [Argus: Resilience-Oriented Safety Assurance Framework for End-to-End ADSs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09032/) (2025)
- [Safe AI -- How is this Possible?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.10436/) (2022)
- [An Empirical Analysis of the Use of Real-Time Reachability for the Safety Assurance of Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01419/) (2022)
- [Searching for Optimal Runtime Assurance via Reachability and Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04288/) (2023)
- [Threat-Oriented Digital Twinning for Security Evaluation of Autonomous Platforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.25757/) (2026)
- [Synergistic Simplex: Cooperative Runtime Assurance for Safety-Critical Autonomous Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.08190/) (2026)
- [Robotics-Inspired Guardrails for Foundation Models in Socially Sensitive Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19940/) (2026)
- [Mission-Level Runtime Assurance for LLM-Assisted ISR Swarms over a Verification-Aware Fabric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.23532/) (2026)
- [HALO: Heterogeneous Admission through Localized Obligations for Safe Agentic Execution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27636/) (2026)
- [Trust Is Not a Score: Runtime Assurance Contracts for High-Risk AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.39717/) (2026)
- [Mind the Refinement Gap: When Safe High-Level Robot Plans Produce Unsafe Executions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.02662/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The recent drive towards achieving greater autonomy and intelligence in robotics has led to high levels of complexity. Autonomous robots increasingly depend on third party off-the-shelf components and complex machine-learning techniques. This trend makes it challenging to provide strong design-time certification of correct operation. To address these challenges, we present SOTER, a robotics programming framework with two key components: (1) a programming language for implementing and testing high-level reactive robotics software and (2) an integrated runtime assurance (RTA) system that helps enable the use of uncertified components, while still providing safety guarantees. SOTER provides language primitives to declaratively construct a RTA module consisting of an advanced, high-performance controller (uncertified), a safe, lower-performance controller (certified), and the desired safety specification. The framework provides a formal guarantee that a well-formed RTA module always satisfies the safety specification, without completely sacrificing performance by using higher performance uncertified components whenever safe. SOTER allows the complex robotics software stack to be constructed as a composition of RTA modules, where each uncertified component is protected using a RTA module. To demonstrate the efficacy of our framework, we consider a real-world case-study of building a safe drone surveillance system. Our experiments both in simulation and on actual drones show that the SOTER-enabled RTA ensures the safety of the system, including when untrusted third-party components have bugs or deviate from the desired behavior.