Three companion technical reference artifacts for evaluators: Technology Readiness Level (TRL) classification across all 13 governance components and hardware platforms; AUTHREX terminology mapped to standard academic and industry equivalents; and defense-to-civilian dual-use application matrix showing cross-domain portability.
Last reviewed: May 13, 2026 · Version 1.0 · Maintained by the author
The following classifications are self-assigned by the author against published, public-domain technology-maturity definitions: DoD 5000.02 Appendix B (Technology Readiness Assessment Guidance) and the NASA TRL Calculator. They have not been externally validated by an FFRDC, government program office, or independent technical-evaluation team. All cited evidence is open and verifiable for external assessment.
Current TRL assessment across all governance architectures and hardware platforms, aligned with standard TRL definitions. The research program targets TRL 6 (system demonstration in relevant environment) by Q2 2027.
| Component | TRL | Status | Evidence (DOI) |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMAA (Authority) | TRL 4 | Validated in lab, 42-file Python package, 98 tests, TLA+ spec | 10.5281/zenodo.18861653 |
| SATA (Sensor Trust) | TRL 4 | Validated in lab, Dempster-Shafer fusion, cross-sensor attestation | 10.5281/zenodo.18936251 |
| CARA (Recovery) | TRL 3 | Proof of concept, GREP 4-phase recovery, deterministic state machine | 10.5281/zenodo.18917790 |
| MAIVA (Consensus) | TRL 3 | Proof of concept, Byzantine fault-tolerant swarm consensus | 10.5281/zenodo.19015517 |
| FLAME (Deliberation) | TRL 3 | Proof of concept, 5-state circuit breaker, deliberation windows | 10.5281/zenodo.19015618 |
| ADARA (Deception) | TRL 3 | Proof of concept, cross-sensor anomaly correlation | 10.5281/zenodo.19043924 |
| ERAM (Escalation Risk) | TRL 3 | Proof of concept, escalation risk quantification for C2 decision compression | SSRN (published) |
| BLADE-EDGE (Defense) | TRL 3 | Design complete, 72 components, BOM specified, simulation validated | 10.5281/zenodo.19177472 |
| BLADE-AV (Automotive) | TRL 3 | Design complete, 62 components, ISO 26262 ASIL-D targeted | 10.5281/zenodo.19232130 |
| BLADE-MARITIME (Maritime) | TRL 3 | Design complete, 84 components, IP68/MIL-STD-810G targeted | 10.5281/zenodo.19246785 |
| BLADE-INFRA (Infrastructure) | TRL 3 | Design complete, 92 components, SIL 3/NERC CIP targeted | 10.5281/zenodo.19277887 |
| BLADE-SPACE (Orbital) | TRL 2-3 | Preliminary Design Phase, 91 components, 6U+ SmallSat, 30 krad TID, NASA EXPAND.3.S26B aligned | 10.5281/zenodo.20183269 |
| BLADE-CUAS (Counter-UAS) | TRL 2-3 hw / 3-4 sim | Counter-UAS authority node, four-tier HMAA federal-SLTT handoff, ECDSA P-256 evidence chain, EO 14305 / FY26 NDAA Safer Skies Act aligned, ~75% BLADE-EDGE reuse | 10.5281/zenodo.20299604 |
| BLADE-AGENT-HSM (Agentic AI) | TRL 2-3 silicon / 3-4 emulator | Hardware root of trust for autonomous AI agents; companion to the AUTHREX-AGENT software shim; non-exportable ECDSA P-256/P-384 keys (SE051 EAL6+), TPM 2.0 tier state, tamper-evident audit ledger; CISA/NSA agentic-AI guidance and FY26 NDAA Sec. 1513/6601 aligned | 10.5281/zenodo.20299821 |
| BLADE-SWARM (Swarm Autonomy) | TRL 3-4 sim / spec, TRL 2 testbed | Authority governance for attritable autonomous swarms at N=10/50/500; Byzantine-fault-tolerant sub-quorum consensus (SATA/HMAA/MAIVA), per-node ECDSA P-256 distributed audit ledger, TLA+ verified (5 safety, 3 liveness); DoDD 3000.09 / FY26 NDAA / NIST AI RMF aligned | 10.5281/zenodo.20351198 |
| BLADE-INFRA-OT (IT/OT Boundary) | TRL 2-3 hardware / 3-4 simulation | Authority-governed, fail-closed IT/OT bridge for cross-boundary OT command adjudication; AUTHREX adjudicates each cross-boundary command to propagate, hold, or isolate across four OT authority regimes; dual Xilinx Kria K26 governance and network planes; seed-deterministic SHA-256 tamper-evident audit ledger; NIST SP 800-82 / ISA/IEC 62443 / NERC CIP aligned | 10.5281/zenodo.20342067 |
| BLADE-FINANCE (Financial Sector) | TRL 3-4 simulation / TRL 2 hardware | Authority governance for financial-sector AI decision systems; eight-stage AUTHREX pipeline routes each transaction to autonomous clearance, supervised review, elevated confirmation, or manual hold; four-tier HMAA; population-state coordination and retrospective swarm review; SHA-256 canonical-form evidence chain; U.S. Treasury FS AI RMF / NIST AI RMF / EO 14179 aligned; synthetic data only | 10.5281/zenodo.20374692 |
| Rover Testbed (UGV) | TRL 4 | Validated in lab, 37 components, physical platform documented | 10.5281/zenodo.19143190 |
| UAV Platform | TRL 4 | Validated in lab, 52 components, physical platform documented | 10.5281/zenodo.19128769 |
TRL Progression Target: Current portfolio spans TRL 3-4 (proof of concept through lab validation). FPGA governance bitstream commissioning (Q3 2026) and physical testbed flight validation (Q4 2026) target TRL 5-6. SBIR Phase II proposal planned for Q4 2026.
This research uses domain-specific terminology developed within the AUTHREX framework. The table below maps these terms to equivalent concepts in the broader academic and standards literature, enabling cross-referencing with established research communities.
| AUTHREX Term | Standard Academic / Industry Equivalent | Key References & Communities |
|---|---|---|
| Authority Lifecycle Governance | Runtime Assurance (RTA), Supervisory Control, Safe Autonomy | ASTM F3269-21, DARPA Assured Autonomy, Simplex Architecture |
| HMAA (Authority Computation) | Adjustable Autonomy, Shared Autonomy, Sliding Autonomy, Levels of Autonomy (LOA) | Sheridan & Verplanck (1978), Parasuraman et al. (2000), SAE J3016 |
| SATA (Sensor Trust) | Sensor Fusion Integrity, Remote Attestation, Trust Anchoring, Trusted Computing | TPM 2.0 (TCG), Dempster-Shafer Theory, NIST SP 800-193 |
| CARA (Recovery Protocol) | Safe Control, Fail-Safe Design, Graceful Degradation, Control Barrier Functions (CBF) | IEC 61508 (SIL), ISO 26262 (ASIL), MIL-STD-882E |
| MAIVA (Multi-Agent Trust) | Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT), Distributed Trust, Multi-Robot Coordination, Swarm Safety | Lamport et al. (1982), PBFT (Castro & Liskov), IEEE RAS |
| FLAME (Deliberation Windows) | Strategic Latency, Human-on-the-Loop (HOTL), Meaningful Human Control, Escalation Management | DoDD 3000.09, ICRC Position on AWS, Horowitz (2016) |
| ADARA (Adversarial Detection) | Adversarial Machine Learning, Anomaly Detection, Intrusion Detection, Spoofing Detection | Goodfellow et al. (2014), NIST AI 100-2e2023, MITRE ATT&CK |
| ERAM (Escalation Risk) | Decision Compression, C2 Risk Assessment, Flash War Theory, AI Safety in Military Systems | Scharre (2018), NSCA Final Report (2021), JADC2 Doctrine |
| Trust Scalar τ ∈ [0,1] | Confidence Score, Belief Mass, Trust Metric, Safety Margin | Dempster-Shafer (1976), Subjective Logic (Jøsang), DO-178C |
| BLADE Platform Family | Runtime Monitor, Safety Controller, Watchdog System, Independent Safety Monitor | Simplex (Sha et al.), AEEC RTCA DO-254, UL 4600 |
Why distinct terminology: The AUTHREX framework introduces new terminology because it addresses the complete authority lifecycle, from sensor trust evaluation through authority computation, deliberation, consensus, recovery, and escalation risk, as a unified architectural stack. Existing terms address individual components (e.g., "runtime assurance" covers monitoring but not authority graduation; "shared autonomy" covers levels but not hardware-enforced trust gating). The AUTHREX vocabulary reflects this end-to-end integration while maintaining precise mappings to established concepts.
The same governance pipeline that prevents catastrophic failures in military systems directly addresses high-liability scenarios in commercial autonomous operations. Each defense application maps to a corresponding civilian use case through the same underlying framework.
| Defense Application | Framework | Commercial Application | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fratricide prevention under EW spoofing | SATA + ADARA | Autonomous trucking: forced override during sensor degradation | ISO 26262 ASIL-D |
| UAV swarm under Byzantine compromise | MAIVA | Warehouse robot fleets: isolating malfunctioning units | ISO 10218 |
| Maritime GPS spoofing into foreign waters | ADARA + ERAM | Commercial shipping: preventing spoofing-induced rerouting | IMO MASS Code |
| SCADA command injection in contested ops | FLAME + CARA | Industrial SCADA: deliberation before automated load-shedding | NERC CIP / SIL 3 |
| Directed energy under degraded sensor trust | HMAA + SATA | AV drive-by-wire authority gating under perception failure | SAE J3016 L4 |
| Flash escalation in multi-domain command | FLAME + ERAM | Financial trading: deliberation windows before large automated trades | SEC Rule 15c3-5 |
Cross-Domain Portability: Every row above uses the same governance SDK with different YAML configuration files. The governance logic is identical; only the sensor types, effector types, and regulatory thresholds change.