Dr Matt Webster
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RESEARCH

At various times I have been associated with the following groups, labs and centres:

• University of Liverpool, UK.
• Department of Computer Science.
• Autonomy and Verification Network.
• Centre for Autonomous Systems Technology.
• Virtual Engineering Centre, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, UK.
• Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
  • School of Computer Science and Mathematics.
  • Research Centre for Critical Infrastructure Computer Technology and Protection (PROTECT).
  • Applied Computing Research Group.
  • Network and Information Security Technology Research Group.

My previous funded projects include:

• Future AI and Robotics for Space (FAIR-SPACE) RAI Hub (UKRI/EPSRC).
• Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets (ORCA) RAI Hub (UKRI/EPSRC).
• Science of Sensor Systems Software (S4) programme grant (EPSRC).
• Trustworthy Robotic Assistants (EPSRC).
• Virtual Engineering Centre (ERDF/NWDA).
• Model Checking Agent Programming Languages (EPSRC).

Before those I did a Ph.D. on formal modelling and verification, computer viruses and artificial life, funded by EPSRC (thesis available in PDF).

PUBLICATIONS

If you have any problems obtaining these publications please contact me.

• Page V, Dadswell C, Webster M, Jump M, Fisher M. Towards the Determination of Safe Operating Envelopes for Autonomous UAS in Offshore Inspection Missions Robotics, 10(3):97, 2021.
• Cardoso R, Kourtis G, Dennis LA, Dixon C, Farrell M, Fisher M, Webster M. A Review of Verification and Validation for Space Autonomous Systems Current Robotics Reports, 2021.
• Fisher M, Cardoso RC, Collins EC, Dadswell C, Dennis LA, Dixon C, Farrell M, Ferrando A, Huang X, Jump M, Kourtis G, Lisitsa A, Luckcuck M, Luo S, Page V, Papacchini F, Webster M. An Overview of Verification and Validation Challenges for Inspection Robots. Robotics, 2021.
• Webster M, Breza M, Dixon C, Fisher M, McCann J. Exploring the effects of environmental conditions and design choices on IoT systems using formal methods, Journal of Computational Science (2020), 45 DOI.
• Matt Webster, Louise Dennis, Clare Dixon, Michael Fisher, Richard Stocker, and Maarten Sierhuis. Formal Verification of Astronaut-Rover Teams for Planetary Surface Operations. IEEE Aerospace Conference (Aeroconf 2020).
• Matt Webster, David Western, Dejanira Araiza-Illan, Clare Dixon, Kerstin Eder, Michael Fisher, and Anthony G Pipe. A Corroborative Approach to Verification and Validation of Human–Robot Teams. The International Journal of Robotics Research, (November 2019). doi:10.1177/0278364919883338. [arXiv]
• Vincent Page, Matt Webster, Michael Fisher, and Mike Jump. 2019. Towards a Methodology to Test UAVs in Hazardous Environments. In ICAS 2019, The Fifteenth International Conference on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems, 38–45. Winner of a Best Paper Award.
• Vincent Koeman, Louise A. Dennis, Matt Webster, Michael Fisher and Koen Hindriks. The "Why did you do that?" Button: Answering Why-questions for end users of Robotic Systems. 7th International Workshop on Engineering Multi-Agent Systems (EMAS 2019).
• Webster, M.; Breza, M.; Dixon, C.; Fisher, M. & McCann, J. Formal Verification of Synchronisation, Gossip and Environmental Effects for Wireless Sensor Networks. Electronic Communications of the EASST, 2019, 76.
• Marie Farrell, Rafael C. Cardoso, Louise A. Dennis, Clare Dixon, Michael Fisher, Georgios Kourtis, Alexei Lisitsa, Matt Luckcuck, Matt Webster. Modular Verification of Autonomous Space Robotics. IEEE International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology (SMC-IT) Assurance of Autonomy for Robotic Space Missions Mini-Workshop. arXiv:1908.10738, 2019. BibTex
• Zhao, X.; Robu, V.; Flynn, D.; Dinmohammadi, F.; Fisher, M. & Webster, M. Probabilistic Model Checking of Robots Deployed in Extreme Environments. 33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2019.
• Fisher, M.; Collins, E.; Dennis, L.; Luckcuck, M.; Webster, M.; Jump, M.; Page, V.; Patchett, C.; Dinmohammadi, F.; Flynn, D.; Robu, V. & Zhao, X. Verifiable Self-Certifying Autonomous Systems. 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW), 2018, 341-348.
• Dinmohammadi, F.; Page, V.; Flynn, D.; Robu, V.; Fisher, M.; Patchett, C.; Jump, M.; Tang, W. & Webster, M. Certification of Safe and Trusted Robotic Inspection of Assets. 2018 Prognostics and System Health Management Conference (PHM-Chongqing), 2018, 276-284.
• Gainer, P., Dixon, C., Dautenhahn, K., Fisher, M., Hustadt, U., Saunders, J., and Webster, M., "CRutoN: Automatic Verification of a Robotic Assistant's Behaviours," in Proc. FMICS-AVoCS, pp. 119--133, 2017.
• Elisa Cucco, Michael Fisher, Louise Dennis, Clare Dixon, Matt Webster, Bastian Broecker, Richard Williams, Joe Collenette, Katie Atkinson and Karl Tuyls, "Towards Robots for Social Engagement" (PDF). Workshop on Human-Robot Engagement in the Home, Workplace and Public Spaces (WHRE 2017), 2017.
• Webster, M., Dixon, C., Fisher, M., Salem, M., Saunders, J., Koay, K.L., Dautenhahn, K., Saez-Pons, J., "Toward Reliable Autonomous Robotic Assistants Through Formal Verification: A Case Study," in IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, no. 99, pp. 1-11. Open access, DOI 10.1109/THMS.2015.2425139.
• Dennis, L., Fisher, M., Slavkovik, M. and Webster, M., "Formal Verification of Ethical Choices in Autonomous Systems," in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, volume 77, 2016.
• Louise A. Dennis, Michael Fisher and Matt Webster. Two-Stage Agent Program Verification (PDF). Journal of Logic and Computation, 2015. DOI: 10.1093/logcom/exv002.
• Clare Dixon, Matt Webster, Joe Saunders, Michael Fisher, and Kerstin Dautenhahn. "The Fridge Door is Open" — Temporal Verification of a Robotic Assistant's Behaviours (PDF preprint). In Proceedings of Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2014), Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science. To appear. Won the Springer Award for Best Paper.
• Matt Webster, Neil Cameron, Michael Fisher and Mike Jump. Generating Certification Evidence for Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Using Model Checking and Simulation (PDF preprint). Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, 11(5):258-279, 2014.
• Matt Webster, Clare Dixon, Michael Fisher, Maha Salem, Joe Saunders, Kheng Lee Koay and Kerstin Dautenhahn. Formal Verification of an Autonomous Personal Robotic Assistant (PDF preprint). In Formal Verification and Modeling in Human-Machine Systems: Papers from the AAAI Spring Symposium (FVHMS 2014). ISBN 978-1-57735-655-4.
• Matt Webster, Clare Dixon and Michael Fisher. Safe and Trustworthy Autonomous Robotic Assistants (PDF here). In Space Safety Magazine, Issue 9, Winter 2014. ISSN: 2214-0379.
• Farshid Amirabdollahian, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Clare Dixon, Kerstin Eder, Michael Fisher, Kheng Lee Koay, Evgeni Magid, Tony Pipe, Maha Salem, Joe Saunders and Matt Webster. Can You Trust Your Robotic Assistant? (PDF preprint). In G. Herrmann et al., editors, 5th International Conference in Social Robotics (ICSR 2013), volume 8239 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 571–573. Springer, 2013.
• Louise Dennis, Michael Fisher, Marija Slavkovik, and Matt Webster. Ethical Choice in Unforeseen Circumstances (PDF preprint). Proceedings of the 14th Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2013) conference. To appear in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Springer.
• Michael Fisher, Louise Dennis and Matt Webster. Verifying Autonomous Systems (PDF preprint). In Communications of the ACM 56(9):84--93, 2013.
• Louise Dennis, Michael Fisher and Matt Webster. Using Agent JPF to Build Models for Other Model Checkers (PDF preprint). In Proc. International Workshop on Computational Logic in Multi-Agent Systems (CLIMA). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8143, pages 273-289. Springer, 2013.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. R-models: A Mathematical Framework for Capturing Notions of Abstraction and Assistance in Reproductive Systems. Biosystems 2012. In press. DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2012.07.003
• Matt Webster, Neil Cameron, Mike Jump and Michael Fisher. Towards Certification of Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Using Formal Model Checking and Simulation (PDF preprint). In Infotech@Aerospace 2012, 19-21 June 2012, Garden Grove, California, number AIAA 2012-2573, 2012.
• Matt Webster, Michael Fisher, Neil Cameron and Mike Jump. Formal Methods for the Certification of Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PDF) In Francesco Flammini, Sandro Bologna, and Valeria Vittorini, editors, The 30th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security (SAFECOMP 2011), volume 6894 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 228–242. Springer, 2011.
• Neil Cameron, Matt Webster, Mike Jump and Michael Fisher. Certification of Autonomous UAS: a Virtual Engineering Approach (PDF), In AIAA Modeling and Simulation Technologies Conference, Portland, Oregon, Aug. 8-11, 2011, number AIAA-2011-6664, 2011.
• Louise A. Dennis Michael Fisher, Matthew P. Webster and Rafael H. Bordini. Model Checking Agent Programming Languages (PDF). Automated Software Engineering, 19(1):5–63, March 2012. (The original paper is available via SpringerLink.)
• J.E. Cooper, G. Abdelal, N. Cameron, M. Fisher, J. Forrest, G. Georgiou, K.K.B. Hon, M. Jump, G.D. Padfield, A.J. Robotham, F. Shao, M. Webster, M.D. White. Virtual Engineering Centre — Examples of Virtual Prototyping and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (PDF), Proceedings of the NATO RTO Workshop AVT-173 on Virtual Prototyping of Affordable Military Vehicles Using Advanced MDO, Sophia, Bulgaria, May 2011.
• Matt Webster, Michael Fisher, Mike Jump and Neil Cameron. Model Checking and the Certification of Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (PDF). Technical Report ULCS-11-001, University of Liverpool, Department of Computer Science, 2011.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Detection of metamorphic and virtualization-based malware using algebraic specification (PDF). Journal in Computer Virology, 5(3):221-245, 2009. (The original paper is available via SpringerLink.)
• Matt Webster, Louise Dennis and Michael Fisher. Model-Checking Auctions, Coalitions and Trust (PDF). Technical Report ULCS-09-004, University of Liverpool, Department of Computer Science, 2009.
• Matt Webster, Louise Dennis and Michael Fisher. Model-Checking Auctions, Coalitions and Trust (PDF), Automated Reasoning Workshop 2009 (ARW 2009).
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Formal affordance-based models of computer virus reproduction (PDF). Journal in Computer Virology, 4(4):289–306, November 2008. (The original paper is available via SpringerLink.)
• Matthew Paul Webster. Formal Models of Reproduction: from Computer Viruses to Artificial Life (PDF). PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, 2008.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Hierarchical components and entity-based modelling in artificial life. In Seth Bullock, Jason Noble, Richard Watson, and Mark A. Bedau, editors, Artificial Life XI: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems, pages 678-685. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. ISBN 978-0-262-75017-2.
• Alexei Lisitsa and Matt Webster. Supercompilation for equivalence testing in metamorphic computer viruses detection (PDF), First International Workshop on Metacomputation in Russia (META 2008).
• Alexei Lisitsa and Matt Webster. Detecting metamorphic computer viruses using supercompilation (PDF), 3rd International Workshop on the Theory of Computer Viruses (TCV 2008).
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Detection of metamorphic and virtualization-based malware using algebraic specification (PDF). In Vlasti Broucek and Eric Filiol, editors, 17th European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research Annual Conference Proceedings (EICAR 2008), pages 99–119, 2008.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Reproducer classification using the theory of affordances: Models and examples (PDF). International Journal of Information Technology and Intelligent Computing, 2(2), 2007.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Classification of computer viruses using the theory of affordances (PDF), 2nd International Workshop on the Theory of Computer Viruses (TCV 2007).
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Reproducer classification using the theory of affordances (PDF). In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life (CI-ALife 2007), pages 115–122. IEEE Press, 2007.
• Matt Webster and Grant Malcolm. Detection of metamorphic computer viruses using algebraic specification (PDF). Journal in Computer Virology, 2(3):149–161, December 2006.
• Matt Webster. Algebraic specification of computer viruses and their environments (PDF). In Peter Mosses, John Power, and Monika Seisenberger, editors, Selected Papers from the First Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science Young Researchers Workshop (CALCO-jnr 2005). University of Wales Swansea Computer Science Report Series CSR 18-2005, pages 99–113, 2005.
• Matt Webster. ASM-based modelling of self-replicating programs (PDF). The 11th International Workshop on Abstract State Machines (ASM 2004).

Copyright 2024 Matt Webster.