REALITY ACCORD: Counterexample-Bounded Effect Concordance for Heterogeneous Autonomous Systems

Heterogeneous robots, vehicles, AI agents, and automated processes increasingly share physical spaces while retaining private world models. Local safety interlocks verify individual commands; V2X maneuver negotiation checks trajectory intersection; runtime-assurance switches select among pre-verified controllers. None of these mechanisms establishes whether private predictive models are behaviorally compatible for a proposed physical effect before an independent interlock actuates. Message-schema compatibility, trajectory non-intersection, and majority agreement can all pass while consequences remain jointly unacceptable and humans lose practical intervention or escape paths.

This paper introduces REALITY ACCORD (Counterexample-Bounded Effect Concordance Architecture, CBEA), a proposed runtime protocol for action-specific concordance across heterogeneous autonomous systems. The architecture defines an ordered seven-element chain: (1) action-conditioned EffectProposals that describe physical consequences decoupled from actuator commands; (2) privacy-minimized response oracles (WorldSlices) that disclose boundary behavior without sharing raw world models; (3) a bounded separating counterexample basis synthesized across private models at accord time; (4) consequence-tube compatibility verifying jointly acceptable outcome sets; (5) a Human Optionality Reserve (HOR) gate that verifies practical human intervention and escape paths as a hard fail-closed condition; (6) short-lived expiring Accord Results forwarded to independent local interlocks only — never assuming actuation authority; and (7) post-effect residual quarantine that invalidates future participation on detected drift without rewriting historical accords.

The key architectural insight is that behavioral compatibility must be tested through typed separating probes at the boundaries of private models — not by merging representations, sharing raw models, or relying on message-schema conformance. Adjacent systems including KINECLAUSTRUM-class local interlocks, V2X trajectory negotiation, and Simplex/CBF runtime assurance each hold subsets of these elements but omit cross-model counterexample concordance, consequence-tube verification, and hard human-optionality gates in a single ordered chain.

This Public Research Edition (v1.8.0) includes a proof-of-concept implementation with a passing Reality Gate demonstrator (6/6 core tests, 6/6 adversarial defenses), six formal proofs, benchmark evidence, mutation testing, alternative implementation replication, a dual-drone corridor conflict scenario with pedestrian and UTM supervisor roles, and stress tests scaling agents, parameters, and exchanges. Standards adjacency covers ISO 26262, ISO 21448 SOTIF, and ISO 13482 with honest PARTIAL, PLANNED, and NOT APPLICABLE assessments.

REALITY ACCORD is not an ISO 26262 or DO-178C certified stack and does not claim safety certification, peer review, independent human replication, patentability, or legal compliance opinion. World models in the proof-of-concept remain kinematic. Real-Invention Readiness is assessed at approximately 95%, capped pending independent replication and functional-safety handoff. All claims should be treated as blueprint-grade until independently replicated. Released for evaluation, citation, and attempted falsification.