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Main Authors: Skoglund, Martin, Warg, Fredrik, Thorsén, Anders, Punnekkat, Sasikumar, Hansson, Hans
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02221
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author Skoglund, Martin
Warg, Fredrik
Thorsén, Anders
Punnekkat, Sasikumar
Hansson, Hans
author_facet Skoglund, Martin
Warg, Fredrik
Thorsén, Anders
Punnekkat, Sasikumar
Hansson, Hans
contents The deployment of automated functions that can operate without direct human supervision has changed safety evaluation in domains seeking higher levels of automation. Unlike conventional systems that rely on human operators, these functions require new assessment frameworks to demonstrate that they do not introduce unacceptable risks under real-world conditions. To make a convincing safety claim, the developer must present a thorough justification argument, supported by evidence, that a function is free from unreasonable risk when operated in its intended context. The key concept relevant to the presented work is the intended context, often captured by an Operational Design Domain specification (ODD). ODD formalization is challenging due to the need to maintain flexibility in adopting diverse specification formats while preserving consistency and traceability and integrating seamlessly into the development, validation, and assessment. This paper presents a way to formalize an ODD in the Pkl language, addressing central challenges in specifying ODDs while improving usability through specialized configuration language features. The approach is illustrated with an automotive example but can be broadly applied to ensure rigorous assessments of operational contexts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_02221
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Formalizing Operational Design Domains with the Pkl Language
Skoglund, Martin
Warg, Fredrik
Thorsén, Anders
Punnekkat, Sasikumar
Hansson, Hans
Software Engineering
The deployment of automated functions that can operate without direct human supervision has changed safety evaluation in domains seeking higher levels of automation. Unlike conventional systems that rely on human operators, these functions require new assessment frameworks to demonstrate that they do not introduce unacceptable risks under real-world conditions. To make a convincing safety claim, the developer must present a thorough justification argument, supported by evidence, that a function is free from unreasonable risk when operated in its intended context. The key concept relevant to the presented work is the intended context, often captured by an Operational Design Domain specification (ODD). ODD formalization is challenging due to the need to maintain flexibility in adopting diverse specification formats while preserving consistency and traceability and integrating seamlessly into the development, validation, and assessment. This paper presents a way to formalize an ODD in the Pkl language, addressing central challenges in specifying ODDs while improving usability through specialized configuration language features. The approach is illustrated with an automotive example but can be broadly applied to ensure rigorous assessments of operational contexts.
title Formalizing Operational Design Domains with the Pkl Language
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02221