Independent Researcher in AI Governance and Safety-Critical Autonomous Systems

Burak Oktenli

Governance Architectures for Safe Autonomous Systems

Developing governance architectures intended to enable safe, accountable, and controllable deployment of autonomous systems in critical infrastructure, national security, and safety-critical autonomous environments. These architectures function as control layers governing how authority is granted, restricted, and recovered within autonomous systems. This work focuses on authority lifecycle control, decision integrity, and fail-safe recovery mechanisms that maintain human oversight in high-speed human-machine environments.

This research integrates physical testbeds, simulation platforms, and formal architectural design.

Research status: All four patent applications are provisional (awaiting USPTO action). All 33 publications are open-access preprints or published papers. All hardware platforms are research demonstrators at TRL 2-4, not commercial products.

4 U.S. Provisional Patents Submitted (HMAA, CARA, SATA, FLAME)

33 Published Works and Public Disclosures

Georgetown University, M.P.S. Applied Intelligence (In Progress)

140+ Professional Credentials from 25+ Institutions

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Member #102193505

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Member #1936005

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Member #9952787

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Member #656504

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Member #2009712

National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Member #1700222

Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society, Lifetime Member #2007930

Proposed Endeavor Research Tree Heilmeier Catechism Download Resume Contact

Authority Lifecycle & Governance Stack

Hardware Trust Layer

SATA Protocol

TPM-anchored τ-Chain producing continuous sensor trust scalar τ ∈ [0,1]

Individual Authority Layer

HMAA Engine

Computes A = base × gate × damping × τ with six-tier HMAS spectrum and secure audit

Deception Filtering Layer

ADARA Engine

Adjusts A_adj = A_hmaa × (1 - λ × P_deception) before swarm aggregation

Multi-Agent Consensus Layer

MAIVA Engine

Byzantine-resilient swarm aggregation of deception-filtered authority across 3f+1 agents

Latency Control Layer

FLAME Engine

Mandatory deliberation windows via D(A, tier, domain) before action execution

Recovery Layer

CARA Engine

Deterministic authority recovery via GREP phases if any layer above enters lockout

Risk Assessment Layer

ERAM Framework

Escalation risk assessment across the full authority pipeline for C2 environments

Deterministic Non-compensatory gate 10M-eval verified Latency injection Byzantine-resilient Deception-aware

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U.S. Patents Submitted

Published Works

Published Books

140+

Professional Credentials

About

Research Mission

The Problem. Autonomous systems in defense and civilian transportation make decisions faster than humans can intervene, yet no standardized architecture enforces real-time authority governance. DoD Directive 3000.09 requires human control over autonomous weapons but lacks a technical enforcement mechanism. Nearly 40,000 Americans die annually in traffic crashes; NHTSA has documented 1,429 AV incidents (2021-2025); and the SELF DRIVE Act of 2026 (H.R. 7390) now mandates cybersecurity plans for "false vehicle control commands", but no validated reference architecture exists to implement these requirements.

The Gap. Policy frameworks (NIST AI RMF) establish principles but do not enforce them in hardware. Planning-layer safety systems (Mobileye RSS, NVIDIA SFF, SOTIF) constrain behavior but do not govern whether commands reach actuators. Software-only monitors can be bypassed. What is missing: a hardware-enforced architectural layer that continuously evaluates sensor trust, computes graded authority, enforces deliberation windows, and cuts actuator authority through a fail-safe when trust degrades, deterministically, in real-time, without firmware involvement.

My Contribution. Seven governance architectures managing the full authority lifecycle: trust evaluation, authority computation, command gating, consensus, deliberation, deception detection, and recovery:

SATA: Sensor trust attestation using weighted Dempster-Shafer fusion with cross-sensor validation (Patent: U.S. Provisional 64/002,453)
HMAA: Four-level authority computation (A3-A0) with asymmetric hysteresis: immediate downgrade, 5-15s delayed upgrade (Patent: 63/999,105)
CARA: Deterministic GREP-phase recovery: Govern → Restrict → Execute → Persist, with mutual exclusion (Patent: 64/000,170)
MAIVA: Byzantine fault-tolerant multi-agent consensus with CUSUM-augmented anomaly detection
FLAME: Mandatory deliberation windows preventing safety-critical actions without sustained authority (Patent: 64/005,607)
ADARA: Adversarial deception detection computing P(adversarial) from cross-sensor consistency and temporal anomalies
ERAM: Escalation risk quantification for AI-enabled command-and-control decision compression

These are documented in four U.S. provisional patent submissions, seventeen DOI-registered Zenodo records (including research papers with full simulation data for the rover testbed, UAV platform, BLADE-EDGE defense platform, BLADE-AV automotive platform, BLADE-MARITIME maritime platform, and BLADE-INFRA critical infrastructure platform), and fifteen SSRN papers on AI governance and national security policy. Total: 33 published works with public DOIs and permalinks. The BLADE-SPACE orbital governance node (TRL 2-3 Preliminary Design, NASA SBIR EXPAND.3.S26B aligned) ships with a 15-document engineering package and is published on Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20183269).

Hardware Implementation. Twelve physical platforms demonstrating governance at increasing operational capability:

Rover Testbed, 37 components, ~$484, SATA-HMAA-CARA pipeline, 350 simulation runs across 7 fault scenarios, TLA+ verified (48,751 states, 8 safety properties). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19143190.
UAV Platform, 52 components, ~$4,200, MAVLink/HIL bridge for Cube Orange+ integration, 250 simulation runs across 5 adversarial scenarios, Monte Carlo campaign. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19128769.
BLADE-EDGE, 72 components, ~$139K, defense-grade directed-energy weapon governance. Dual Jetson AGX Orin + dual Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA. 9-module pipeline, MIL-STD-810G, hardwired safety interlock relay. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19177472.
BLADE-AV, 62 components, ~$16K, autonomous vehicle drive-by-wire governance. 9-module pipeline, three-leg redundant KILOVAC LEV200 fail-safe relay. ISO 26262 ASIL-D, SAE J3016 L4. 1,200 runs, zero unsafe actions. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19232130.
BLADE-MARITIME, 84 components, ~$43K, maritime surveillance governance. 9-module pipeline with hydroacoustic sonar, MAD, AIS spoofing detection, and sea-state authority damping. IP68 / MIL-STD-810G. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19246785.
BLADE-INFRA, 92 components, ~$12K, critical infrastructure governance. 9-module pipeline with ICS/SCADA integration (IEC 61850, Modbus, PROFINET). SIL 3 / NERC CIP / FIPS 140-2. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19277887.
BLADE-SPACE, 91 components, ~$505K, orbital governance node (TRL 2-3 Preliminary Design Phase). 9-stage pipeline on rad-tolerant compute (Microchip RTG4 FPGA + Aitech S-A1760 Venus SBC, hot-redundant); LEO 400-1200 km, 30 krad TID, 5-year design life; ECDSA P-256 audit chain; three-fault-tolerant safety interlock. 15-document engineering package. Aligned with NASA SBIR EXPAND.3.S26B. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20183269.
BLADE-CUAS, counter-UAS authority governance node, ~$43.5K reference BOM (TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation). 9-stage AUTHREX pipeline; four-tier HMAA (T3/T2/T1/T0) with federal-SLTT handoff; Dempster-Shafer consensus across radar, RF, EO/IR, Remote ID, LIDAR; ECDSA P-256 court-admissible evidence chain (Fed. R. Evid. 901/902/803(6)). Sixth BLADE platform, ~75% reuse from BLADE-EDGE. Aligned with EO 14305 and the FY26 NDAA Safer Skies Act. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20299604.
BLADE-AGENT-HSM, agentic-AI hardware root of trust, ~$199 reference BOM (TRL 2-3 silicon / 3-4 emulator). Hardware companion to the AUTHREX-AGENT software shim; non-exportable ECDSA P-256/P-384 keys in a CC EAL6+ secure element; authority-tier state in a TPM 2.0 PCR bank; HKDF per-tool tokens; multi-modal tamper cascade. Five-opcode 64-byte ABI; USB-A stick and M.2 Key-E module. Seventh BLADE platform, first hardware root of trust. Aligned with CISA/NSA/Five Eyes agentic-AI guidance and FY26 NDAA Sections 1513 and 6601. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20299821.
BLADE-SWARM, attritable swarm authority governance, ~$1,333 per node reference BOM (TRL 3-4 simulator / spec, TRL 2 testbed). Byzantine-fault-tolerant two-phase consensus gated by SATA/HMAA/MAIVA across N=10/50/500 agents; tolerates f=(N-1)/3 compromised agents per quorum with a quorum-intersection bound; per-node ECDSA P-256 root of trust and hash-chained distributed audit ledger; TLA+ verified (5 safety, 3 liveness). Eighth BLADE platform; the multi-agent extension of the HMAA-UAV platform. Aligned with DoDD 3000.09, FY26 NDAA, and the NIST AI RMF. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20351198.
BLADE-INFRA-OT, authority-governed IT/OT bridge for cross-boundary OT command adjudication, ~1U fanless reference design (TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation). Fail-closed, bump-in-the-wire governance appliance at the IT/OT segmentation boundary; AUTHREX adjudicates each cross-boundary command to propagate, hold, or isolate across four OT authority regimes; Xilinx Kria K26 governance plane and x86 network plane; 48 BOM line items, 35 electrical, 42 mechanical; seed-deterministic SHA-256 tamper-evident audit ledger. Ninth BLADE platform; the operational-technology companion to BLADE-INFRA. Aligned with NIST SP 800-82, ISA/IEC 62443, and NERC CIP. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20342067.
BLADE-FINANCE, authority governance for financial-sector AI decision systems under the U.S. Treasury Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework (TRL 3-4 simulation / TRL 2 hardware). Software-enforced authority-arbitration node; an eight-stage AUTHREX pipeline (VALIDATE through CARA) routes each transaction to autonomous clearance, supervised review, elevated confirmation, or manual hold; four-tier HMAA; a population-state coordination model across account, device, payee, and IP-cluster history; a retrospective stigmergic swarm-review module; SHA-256 canonical-form evidence chain; 36 components, 33 electrical, 32 mechanical, approximately $9,228 BOM. Tenth BLADE platform; first in the economic-security domain. Aligned with the U.S. Treasury FS AI RMF, NIST AI RMF, and EO 14179. Synthetic data only; not deployed in any financial institution. Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20374692.

All ten BLADE platforms share the same governance pipeline architecture, demonstrating domain-agnostic portability across defense (DoDD 3000.09), automotive (ISO 26262), maritime (MIL-STD-810G), critical infrastructure (SIL 3 / NERC CIP), orbital (NASA EXPAND.3.S26B alignment), counter-UAS (EO 14305), and agentic AI (CISA/NSA/Five Eyes agentic-AI guidance). Combined across the four flight-relevant published platforms: 2,800+ experimental runs, zero unsafe actions. BLADE-SPACE is at TRL 2-3 (Preliminary Design); its V&V campaign is specified but not yet executed.

Software Implementation. A companion software authority-governance layer on the AUTHREX Systems venture site extends the same authority pipeline to additional settings, as six reference architectures (TRL 3-4, single-author research, not deployed): AUTHREX-AGENT (agentic AI), AUTHREX-ASSURE (pre-deployment assurance), AUTHREX-ICS-GATE (OT and critical infrastructure), AUTHREX-AGENT-CYBER (cyber-defense, governance only), AUTHREX-SPACECYBER (orbital autonomy), and AUTHREX-SANDBOX (test and evaluation). Several are software companions to the BLADE hardware platforms.

Simulation and Verification. Nineteen browser-based simulations with seeded PRNG for bit-exact reproducibility. G*Power justified sample sizes, Bonferroni correction, Shapiro-Wilk normality tests. All run client-side with zero dependencies, any reviewer can independently verify results.

Current Status. Independent Researcher based in Washington, DC, pursuing Georgetown University M.P.S. Applied Intelligence (STEM, in progress). B.Sc. Computer Science Engineering (USF, 3.45 GPA). MBA International Business (Lynn, 4.0 GPA). Governance architectures published on Zenodo under CC BY 4.0; ERAM published on SSRN. Next-phase: physical validation, TLA+/UPPAAL formal verification, ROS 2/Gazebo HIL testing, and ASIL-D certification pathway. This research program is informed by progressive professional experience across data governance, infrastructure security, and critical infrastructure systems, see Professional Background below, and sustained engagement with the defense, aerospace, and AI communities through industry conferences and professional societies.

Authority Lifecycle Governance

Assignment, delegation, monitoring, and revocation of operational authority in autonomous decision systems. Implemented in HMAA (U.S. Provisional 63/999,105). 42-file Python package, 98 tests, TLA+ verified (48,751 states). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18861653.

Fail-Safe Control Recovery

Deterministic recovery protocol for authority lockout events with GREP phased recovery and terminal non-compensatory policy gate. Implemented in CARA (U.S. Provisional 64/000,170). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18917790.

Decision Integrity Monitoring

Hardware-anchored sensor trust computation using weighted Dempster-Shafer fusion with cross-sensor validation and adversarial dynamics. Implemented in SATA (U.S. Provisional 64/002,453). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18936251.

Escalation Risk Assessment

Quantitative framework for decision-time compression and escalation pathway modeling in AI-enabled command-and-control systems. Documented in the ERAM framework. Published on SSRN.

Flash War Latency Control

FLAME: deterministic latency injection middleware preventing autonomous escalation in multi-domain command environments. 5-state Circuit Breaker State Machine, Dynamic Delay Function D(A, tier, domain). Patent: U.S. Provisional 64/005,607. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015618.

Multi-Agent Trust Verification

MAIVA: Byzantine-resilient swarm trust aggregation with CUSUM-augmented detection, graduated escalation, and DoDD 3000.09 action gate classification. 37 self-tests, TLA+ specification. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015517.

Adversarial Deception-Aware Risk

ADARA: proactive deception prior adjusting authority based on P(adversarial). Deception Probability Engine with Bayesian update and Phantom Fleet detection. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19043924.

UAV Governance Platform

HMAA-UAV: authority-governed flight autonomy for contested environments integrating SATA-HMAA-CARA into a 52-component UAV with Cube Orange+ and Jetson Orin NX. 250 simulation runs across 5 adversarial scenarios. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19128769.

Rover Testbed Platform

Authority-governed rover implementing the full 8-stage SATA-HMAA-CARA pipeline on a 37-component dual-compute platform (RPi5 + ESP32). 350 simulation runs, 7 fault scenarios, zero unsafe actions. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19143190.

BLADE-EDGE Governance Node

Defense-grade edge computing platform implementing all seven governance architectures on dual-redundant Jetson AGX Orin + Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA. 72 components, 103 connections, MIL-STD-810G rated. Hardware-enforced safety interlock. ~$139K prototype BOM. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19177472.

BLADE-AV Governance Node

Authority-governed drive-by-wire safety architecture for autonomous vehicles. 9-module pipeline on Jetson AGX Orin + Zynq UltraScale+. Three-leg redundant KILOVAC fail-safe. 62 components, 1,200 simulation runs, zero unsafe actions. ISO 26262 ASIL-D. ~$16K BOM. Cross-domain portability validated against BLADE-EDGE. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19232130.

BLADE-MARITIME Governance Node

Authority-governed maritime surveillance node with hydroacoustic sonar, magnetic anomaly detection (MAD), and AIS spoofing detection. Four maritime mathematical extensions: D-S fused trust, recursive AIS deception-risk, sea-state authority damping α(H), acoustic-delay-aware Byzantine consensus. 84 components, IP68 / MIL-STD-810G / MIL-STD-461G CE102. Third domain instantiation. $43K total BOM. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19246785.

BLADE-INFRA Governance Node

Authority-governed critical infrastructure protection node for ICS/SCADA systems, power grid monitoring, water treatment, and pipeline operations. IEC 61850 GOOSE, Modbus TCP/RTU, PROFINET IO. Pilz PNOZ S7.1 SIL-3 safety relay. 92 components, IP65, NERC CIP, FIPS 140-2 Level 3. Fourth domain instantiation. $11,590 BOM. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19277887.

BLADE-SPACE Governance Node

Authority-governed orbital governance node for autonomous LEO platforms beyond ground-loop latency. Microchip RTG4 FPGA + Aitech S-A1760 Venus SBC hot redundancy with <200 ms failover; ECDSA P-256 audit chain anchored in rad-tolerant TPM; three-fault-tolerant payload/thruster firing interlock; ADARA multi-constellation GNSS spoofing detection. 91 components, 6U+ SmallSat payload module, 30 krad TID, 5-year LEO mission life. Fifth domain instantiation (TRL 2-3 Preliminary Design Phase, NASA SBIR EXPAND.3.S26B aligned). $505,440 reference BOM. 15-document engineering package; Zenodo DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20183269.

BLADE-CUAS Governance Node

Authority-governed Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) node for the post-EO 14305 multi-agency environment. Passive governance layer between commercial detection sensors and authorized operators; four-tier HMAA (T3/T2/T1/T0) federal-SLTT authority handoff; MAIVA Dempster-Shafer consensus across radar, RF, EO/IR, Remote ID, and LIDAR; ADARA Remote ID spoofing detection; ECDSA P-256 court-admissible evidence chain aligned with Fed. R. Evid. 901/902/803(6). Sixth domain instantiation (TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation), approximately 75% architectural reuse from BLADE-EDGE. Aligned with EO 14305 and the FY26 NDAA Title LXXXVI Safer Skies Act. ~$43.5K reference BOM. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20299604.

BLADE-AGENT-HSM Hardware Root of Trust

Tamper-evident hardware root of trust for autonomous AI agents and the hardware companion to the AUTHREX-AGENT software shim. Signs the agent audit ledger with non-exportable ECDSA P-256/P-384 keys in an NXP EdgeLock SE051 (CC EAL6+) secure element; holds the four-tier HMAA authority state in an Infineon SLB 9670 TPM 2.0 (FIPS 140-2 Level 2) PCR bank; derives per-tool HKDF tokens; aggregates sub-agent spawn-quorum signatures; multi-modal tamper cascade (active PCB mesh, voltage-glitch, thermal) zeroizes keys and latches T0. Five-opcode 64-byte ABI; USB-A stick and M.2 Key-E module from one 4-layer PCB. Seventh BLADE platform and first hardware root of trust. Verified by an adversarial high-assurance emulator (275/275 deterministic checks, P-384 signed golden-trace anchor). Aligned with CISA/NSA/Five Eyes Careful Adoption of Agentic AI Services (1 May 2026) and FY26 NDAA Sections 1513 and 6601. ~$199 reference BOM. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20299821.

BLADE-SWARM Governance Node

Authority-governed coordination layer for attritable multi-agent swarms. Byzantine-fault-tolerant two-phase commit gated by SATA, HMAA, and MAIVA across N=10/50/500 agents, tolerating f=(N-1)/3 compromised agents per quorum with a quorum-intersection bound; per-node ECDSA P-256 root of trust and a hash-chained distributed audit ledger; TLA+ verified (5 safety, 3 liveness properties). Eighth BLADE platform; the multi-agent extension of the HMAA-UAV platform. Aligned with DoDD 3000.09, the FY26 NDAA, and the NIST AI RMF. ~$1,333 per-node reference BOM (TRL 3-4 simulator / spec, TRL 2 testbed). DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20351198.

BLADE-INFRA-OT Governance Node

Authority-governed IT/OT bridge for cross-boundary OT command adjudication. Fail-closed, bump-in-the-wire governance appliance at the IT/OT segmentation boundary; AUTHREX adjudicates each cross-boundary command to propagate, hold for deliberation, or isolate across four OT authority regimes (NOMINAL, ELEVATED, LOCKDOWN, SAFE-HALT); malformed input fails closed. Xilinx Kria K26 governance plane and x86 network plane, managed Ethernet switch with SFP+ ports, ATECC608 root of trust, TPM 2.0, and a Form C fail-closed fault relay in a 1U fanless form factor; 48 BOM line items, 35 electrical, 42 mechanical connections; seed-deterministic SHA-256 tamper-evident audit ledger. Ninth BLADE platform; the operational-technology companion to BLADE-INFRA (TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation). Aligned with NIST SP 800-82, ISA/IEC 62443, and NERC CIP. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20342067.

BLADE-FINANCE Governance Node

Authority governance for financial-sector AI decision systems under the U.S. Treasury Financial Services AI Risk Management Framework. A software-enforced authority-arbitration node placing a hardware-anchored checkpoint between automated transaction-decision models and consequential financial actions; an eight-stage AUTHREX pipeline routes each transaction to autonomous clearance, supervised review, elevated confirmation, or manual hold; four-tier HMAA; population-state coordination across account, device, payee, and IP-cluster history; a retrospective stigmergic swarm-review module recovers coordinated low-and-slow rings the per-transaction path clears; SHA-256 canonical-form evidence chain. Dual-plane compute (Xilinx Kria K26 governance, NVIDIA L4 inference) with a YubiHSM 2 in a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 enclosure; 36 components, approximately $9,228 BOM. Tenth BLADE platform; first in the economic-security domain (TRL 3-4 simulation / TRL 2 hardware). Aligned with the U.S. Treasury FS AI RMF, NIST AI RMF, and EO 14179. Synthetic data only. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20374692.

Software Authority-Governance Layer

Six software systems on the AUTHREX Systems venture site that carry the AUTHREX authority pipeline into agentic AI, OT and critical infrastructure, cyber-defense (governance only), orbital autonomy, and test and evaluation. Reference architectures (TRL 3-4), single-author research, not deployed.

Books

Authority & Architecture Imprint

Three-trilogy / 10-volume technical reference series on autonomous-systems authority architecture: The Authority Equation (3 volumes), The Authority Discipline (4 volumes), and Autonomous Authority (3 volumes). Distributed via Amazon and IngramSpark in print and ebook formats. ISBNs registered through Bowker; The Authority Equation Volume I assigned Library of Congress Control Number 2026912260.

View Full Catalog at Authority & Architecture

Proposed Endeavor in the United States

Research Mission &
National Interest

This research addresses a critical technical gap: how authority is assigned, monitored, degraded, revoked, and recovered in autonomous systems where decisions occur faster than human reaction time. The proposed endeavor is evaluated under the Dhanasar three-prong framework for substantial merit, position to advance the work, and broader national benefit.

1. Substantial Merit & National Importance

Development of operational governance architectures for autonomous systems deployed in U.S. national security, defense, and critical infrastructure. Addresses priorities identified by DoD Directive 3000.09, DARPA Assured Autonomy, NIST AI RMF, NHTSA AV Framework, and the SELF DRIVE Act of 2026 (H.R. 7390). Cross-domain portability across defense (DoDD 3000.09), automotive (ISO 26262 ASIL-D), maritime (MIL-STD-810G), and critical infrastructure (SIL 3 / NERC CIP).

2. Well Positioned to Advance

This research produces substantial merit through peer-reviewable contributions: formal mathematical frameworks (weighted Dempster-Shafer sensor fusion, Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus, CUSUM anomaly detection), reproducible experimental protocols (seeded PRNG, 2,800+ experimental runs, zero unsafe actions), and open-access dissemination under MIT and CC BY 4.0 licenses.

Four U.S. provisional patents filed, 33 published works (18 Zenodo DOIs + 15 SSRN papers), seven governance architectures, twelve hardware research platforms, nineteen interactive simulations producing 2,800+ experimental runs with zero unsafe actions. Advanced degree: Georgetown University M.P.S. Applied Intelligence (STEM). B.Sc. Computer Science Engineering (USF). 140+ professional credentials including IEEE, AIAA, ACM, AAAI, INFORMS, NDIA, DARPAConnect, and Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society memberships. Active industry engagement across defense, aerospace, AI, and manufacturing trade shows and conferences.

3. Benefit to the United States

Fills gaps identified by Congress (H.R. 7390 cybersecurity requirements), NHTSA (1,429 AV incidents 2021-2025), and DoD (autonomous weapons governance). Supports defense modernization, automotive safety, maritime security, and critical infrastructure resilience. Prevents autonomous escalation (FLAME), detects adversarial manipulation (ADARA), and provides cryptographically auditable authority chains. Cross-domain portability demonstrated across four operational domains on one architectural foundation.

Read Full Proposal

Includes Dhanasar analysis, research programs, future roadmap, policy impact, and deployment scenarios

Verifiable Documentation

Credentials & Background

Independently verifiable evidence of patents, publications, institutional affiliation, and professional experience. Every claim can be cross-checked through external systems: USPTO Patent Center, Zenodo, ORCID, Google Scholar, SSRN, ResearchGate, and employment records.

U.S. Provisional Patents

Published Works

10+

Years Professional Experience

External Citations (Cascade Protocol, LexAI)

Verification Sources: Georgetown University M.P.S. Applied Intelligence (STEM) · Lynn University MBA (GPA 4.0) · USF B.Sc. Computer Science Engineering (STEM) · USPTO Patent Center · Zenodo · ORCID #0009-0001-8573-1667 · Google Scholar · SSRN · ResearchGate · Blue.Cloud · 7 professional roles 2017-Present.

View Credentials & Background

Patents & Technical Inventions

Governance Architectures
for Autonomous Systems

Patent Submitted

Sensor Attestation & Trust Anchoring (SATA)

U.S. Provisional 64/002,453 · Filed March 11, 2026

Hardware-anchored τ-Chain protocol producing continuous trust scalar τ ∈ [0,1] from TPM attestation records for autonomous mission authority.

Application: 64/002,453 · Receipt: 74808459

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18936251

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Patent Submitted

Human-Machine Authority Architecture (HMAA)

U.S. Provisional 63/999,105 · Filed March 7, 2026

Real-time authority computation engine with six-tier HMAS spectrum. Research platform: 42-file Python package with 98 tests, 7 validated experiments, TLA+ formal verification (48,751 states), Dempster-Shafer trust fusion, and deterministic simulation traces.

Application: 63/999,105 · Receipt: 74759595

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18861653

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Published on Zenodo

Adversarial Deception-Aware Risk Architecture (ADARA)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19043924 · v10.0 · Author: Burak Oktenli

Proactive deception prior: A_adj = A_hmaa × (1 - λ × P_deception). Computes P(adversarial) from input anomalies, temporal correlation, cross-sensor consistency, and Bayesian mission history. Phantom Fleet detection module.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19043924

Key Formula: A_adj = A_hmaa × (1 - λ × P_deception)

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Published on Zenodo

Multi-Agent Integrity Verification (MAIVA)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015517 · March 14, 2026

Byzantine-resilient swarm trust aggregation (3f+1 BFT), CUSUM-augmented detection, graduated escalation, DoDD 3000.09 action gates. 37 self-tests, TLA+ specification.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015517

Version: v5.18 · License: MIT

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Patent Submitted

Flash War Latency Architecture (FLAME)

U.S. Provisional 64/005,607 · Filed March 14, 2026 · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015618

Strategic Latency as engineered system. Dynamic Delay Function D(A, tier, domain), 5-state Circuit Breaker with crypto-signed transitions, Keep-Alive heartbeat protocol.

Application: 64/005,607 · Receipt: 74858888

Filed: March 14, 2026 · Version: v5.11

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19015618

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Patent Submitted

Control Authority Regulation Architecture (CARA)

U.S. Provisional 64/000,170 · Filed March 9, 2026

Deterministic authority recovery via GREP phases I-IV with non-compensatory terminal gate. 10M-iteration verification, 68-state control-flow enumeration.

Application: 64/000,170 · Receipt: 74767602

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18917790

Zenodo Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Published on SSRN

Escalation Risk Assessment Model (ERAM)

SSRN Abstract ID 6176802 · Author: Burak Oktenli

Decision-time compression analysis for AI-enabled C2 systems. Quantitative framework modeling how authority integrity degrades across interconnected multi-domain environments.

SSRN ID: 6176802 · Status: Published

View on SSRN Source Code Architecture Page Launch Simulation

Applied Research

Research Projects

Governance Architecture Projects

Seven governance architectures forming a unified authority lifecycle framework. Each is published with a DOI on Zenodo, implemented as an interactive simulation, and connected to twelve physical research platforms: Rover Testbed (~$484), UAV Platform (~$4,200), BLADE-EDGE (~$139K), BLADE-AV (~$16K), BLADE-MARITIME (~$43K), BLADE-INFRA (~$12K), BLADE-SPACE (~$505K, TRL 2-3 Preliminary Design), BLADE-CUAS (~$43.5K, counter-UAS, TRL 2-3), BLADE-AGENT-HSM (~$199, agentic-AI hardware root of trust, TRL 2-3 silicon / 3-4 emulator), BLADE-SWARM (~$1,333/node, attritable swarm autonomy, TRL 3-4 simulator / spec), BLADE-INFRA-OT (~1U fanless, IT/OT bridge governance, TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation), and BLADE-FINANCE (~$9,228, financial-sector AI governance, TRL 3-4 simulation / 2 hardware).

HMAA

Human-Machine Authority Architecture

Patent Submitted DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18861653

Real-time authority computation engine. Four-level state machine (A3-A0) with hysteresis transitions. TLA+ verified: 48,751 states, 8 properties, 98 tests.

Authority LevelsTrust GatingTLA+ VerifiedProv. Patent 63/999,105

Problem	Architecture	Impact
Sensor spoofing and degraded inputs	SATA	Detects trust collapse and prevents unsafe decisions from corrupted data
Unsafe autonomous actions under uncertainty	HMAA	Enforces authority constraints on system behavior based on computed trust
Failure recovery instability	CARA	Provides structured, phased recovery instead of binary reset or crash
Multi-agent trust breakdown	MAIVA	Enables trust-aware participation control in multi-agent systems
Escalation risk in autonomous decisions	FLAME	Introduces mandatory deliberation windows before critical actions
Adversarial deception in command systems	ADARA	Detects and mitigates deceptive inputs using Bayesian deception estimation
Decision-time compression in AI-enabled C2	ERAM	Quantifies escalation risk across interconnected multi-domain command environments

Burak Oktenli

Here's the right starting point.

Research Mission

Authority Lifecycle Governance

Fail-Safe Control Recovery

Decision Integrity Monitoring

Escalation Risk Assessment

Flash War Latency Control

Multi-Agent Trust Verification

Adversarial Deception-Aware Risk

UAV Governance Platform

Rover Testbed Platform

BLADE-EDGE Governance Node

BLADE-AV Governance Node

BLADE-MARITIME Governance Node

BLADE-INFRA Governance Node

BLADE-SPACE Governance Node

BLADE-CUAS Governance Node

BLADE-AGENT-HSM Hardware Root of Trust

BLADE-SWARM Governance Node

BLADE-INFRA-OT Governance Node

BLADE-FINANCE Governance Node

Software Authority-Governance Layer

Authority & Architecture Imprint

Research Mission &National Interest

1. Substantial Merit & National Importance

2. Well Positioned to Advance

3. Benefit to the United States

Credentials & Background

Governance Architecturesfor Autonomous Systems

Sensor Attestation & Trust Anchoring (SATA)

Human-Machine Authority Architecture (HMAA)

Adversarial Deception-Aware Risk Architecture (ADARA)

Multi-Agent Integrity Verification (MAIVA)

Flash War Latency Architecture (FLAME)

Control Authority Regulation Architecture (CARA)

Escalation Risk Assessment Model (ERAM)

Research Projects

Governance Architecture Projects

Software Research Platforms

Hardware Research Platforms

Interactive TechnicalDemonstrations

Problem, Solution, Impact

Future Research Directions

Research Papers& Policy Analysis

AUTHREX Systems

Technology Readiness, Terminology& Dual-Use Mapping

Technical Credentials& Domain Expertise

Conferences, Forums & Professional Development

Impact & Recognition

Research & Publication Presence

ORCID

Google Scholar

SSRN

ResearchGate

Zenodo

OpenReview

GitHub

GitLab

LinkedIn

Get In Touch

Current Status and Collaboration

What Is Demonstrated

What Is Not Claimed

What I Am Looking For

Research Mission &
National Interest

Governance Architectures
for Autonomous Systems

Interactive Technical
Demonstrations

Research Papers
& Policy Analysis

Technology Readiness, Terminology
& Dual-Use Mapping

Technical Credentials
& Domain Expertise