IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023 - 48

Feature
definition in [32], autonomy is a capability in which
unmanned systems can combine a variety of features
to achieve the systems' goals. These specifications
are sensing and perceptions of the environment,
analysis, communication, planning, decision making,
and ultimately acting and executing. It is worth
mentioning that human operators set the objectives
of the system.
As illustrated in Figure 1, Ebert and Weyrich [33]
have defined five distinct steps to go through automation
and achieve autonomy. These modifications
commence with a simple and assisted behavior,
including " low-level sensing and control " and terminate
with a full cognitive behavior via a " very high
degree of autonomy " [33].
An automated system lacks the ability to think
about the consequences of its actions, and it is unable
to modify a predefined sequence of activities.
In contrast, an AS has the ability to perceive and
make decisions to accomplish its tasks based on
purposes, skills, and learning experiences [33]. It
is noteworthy that despite the capacity to decide,
these systems have significant shortcomings. Due
to the existing drawbacks, the use of ASs in the
aerospace industry is more applicable than in road
transportation. While autonomous flying is more
reliable, it is predicted that the use of automated
driving will diminish fatal accidents by up to 90%
[33]. Table 1 sums up the technical specifications,
advantages, and disadvantages of automated and
autonomous systems [28], [29], [30], [31].
Autonomous systems: Significant
challenges
It is evident that the design and implementation
of any AS face various challenges. According to new
research by the National Engineering Policy Centre
under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Engineering,
generally, the critical challenges posed by
the advent of ASs are technical challenges, professional
responsibility difficulties, regulation hurdles,
oversight challenges, public acceptance problems,
and finally ethics challenges:
* Technical: In addition to simulation and realworld
trials, new validation and verification
techniques are needed to ensure the safety and
reliability of ASs.
* Professional responsibility: The right standards
and regulations are required to create a culture
alongside the generated challenges.
* Regulation: A fast, responsive, and advanced
monitoring system is needed that can communicate
with regulators of various sectors to ensure
that regulations for the proper implementation of
standards are carefully considered and enforced.
* Oversight: A surveillance expert must exist to
consider the advantages of an AS if there are
uncertainty and risk in the system.
* Public acceptance: Before deploying a new AS,
it must be possible to make trust and public
acceptance between system users and service
providers.
Figure 1. Steps of converting automated systems to
autonomous ones [33].
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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2023

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