# Automating UAV Flight Readiness Approval using Goal-Directed Answer Set Programming

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.12199 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12199/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 27 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Aug 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Constraint Answer Set Programming without Grounding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.11162/) (2018)
- [Justifications for Goal-Directed Constraint Answer Set Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10238/) (2020)
- [A Physician Advisory System for Chronic Heart Failure Management Based on Knowledge Patterns](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.08115/) (2016)
- [Knowledge-driven Natural Language Understanding of English Text and its Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.11707/) (2021)
- [SQuARE: Semantics-based Question Answering and Reasoning Engine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10239/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a novel application of Goal-Directed Answer Set Programming that digitizes the model aircraft operator's compliance verification against the Academy of Model Aircrafts (AMA) safety code. The AMA safety code regulates how AMA flyers operate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for limited recreational purposes. Flying drones and their operators are subject to various rules before and after the operation of the aircraft to ensure safe flights. In this paper, we leverage Answer Set Programming to encode the AMA safety code and automate compliance checks. To check compliance, we use the s(CASP) which is a goal-directed ASP engine. By using s(CASP) the operators can easily check for violations and obtain a justification tree explaining the cause of the violations in human-readable natural language. Further, we implement an algorithm to help the operators obtain the minimal set of conditions that need to be satisfied in order to pass the compliance check. We develop a front-end questionnaire interface that accepts various conditions and use the backend s(CASP) engine to evaluate whether the conditions adhere to the regulations. We also leverage s(CASP) implemented in SWI-Prolog, where SWI-Prolog exposes the reasoning capabilities of s(CASP) as a REST service. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first application of ASP in the AMA and Avionics Compliance and Certification space.