ADAPTIVE LEARNING OF FAULT‑TOLERANT SOFTWARE ENGINEERING FOR UAV AND NANOSATELLITE ONBOARD COMPUTING

Ihor Turkin, Andriy Chukhray, Oleksandr Yevdokymov, Oleksandr Nosykov

Abstract


This article discusses intelligent, computer-based learning methods for teaching reliability engineering principles to onboard computing platforms used in unmanned aerial vehicles and nanosatellites. This study focuses on integrating mathematical reliability models, simulation-based engineering tasks, and formal verification tools into an adaptive educational environment for safety-critical aerospace systems. This study aims to develop an educational methodology that combines adaptive intelligent tutoring with formal verification techniques to train students to design, analyze, and formally prove the correctness of reliability-related algorithms used in onboard computing systems. The tasks to be solved are: defining a competency model for fault-tolerant onboard computing, designing parameterized simulation-based learning tasks, integrating fault-injection scenarios into software quality assessment, and establishing correctness-critical computational kernels for adaptive tutoring. Additional tasks include developing a learner‑modeling mechanism for individualized trajectories and validating reliability-related algorithms used in education. The methods used include: Monte‑Carlo simulation of failure processes, analytic consistency checks, formal verification with Lean, Isabelle/HOL, and Rocq, fault‑injection-driven software quality evaluation, and adaptive knowledge‑tracing–based task sequencing. The proposed approach is demonstrated through an OnBoard1000 case study. The current validation is limited to a proof-of-concept prototype, reproducible computational checks, hidden-test diagnostics, and a prespecified classroom pilot protocol; completed classroom outcome data will be identified future work. Conclusions. The proposed approach demonstrates that combining simulation-driven engineering tasks with formal verification activities encourages students to validate the accuracy of their algorithms and reliability models rather than relying solely on numerical results. This supports the development of rigorous engineering reasoning required in safety-critical domains such as onboard computing in aerospace. Scientific novelty consists of integrating formal theorem-proving tools into an adaptive intelligent tutoring framework for reliability engineering education. The contribution is not a new knowledge-tracing algorithm but a domain-specific methodological layer that connects mission profiles and operating conditions, reliability assumptions and models, architectural redundancy decisions, and parameterized learning tasks with formally verified reference computations and adaptive task selection. In the proposed approach, formal proofs serve as a learning mechanism that teaches students to verify the correctness properties of algorithms and reliability models used in fault-tolerant onboard computing systems.


Keywords


intelligent tutoring system; adaptive learning; On Board Computer (OBC); On Board Diagnostics; reliability engineering; standby replacement; Monte-Carlo simulation; formal verification; Lean 4; Rocq; UAV; nanosatellite.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.32620/reks.2026.2.11

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