A Formal Approach based on Fuzzy Logic for the Specification of Component-Based Interactive Systems

Formal methods are widely recognized as a powerful engineering method for the specification, simulation, development, and verification of distributed interactive systems. However, most formal methods rely on a two-valued logic, and are therefore limited to the axioms of that logic: a specification is valid or invalid, component behavior is realizable or not, safety properties hold or are violated, systems are available or unavailable. Especially when the problem domain entails uncertainty, impreciseness, and vagueness, the appliance of such methods becomes a challenging task. In order to overcome the limitations resulting from the strict modus operandi of formal methods, the main objective of this work is to relax the boolean notion of formal specifications by using fuzzy logic. The present approach is based on Focus theory, a model-based and strictly formal method for componentbased interactive systems. The contribution of this work is twofold: i) we introduce a specification technique based on fuzzy logic which can be used on top of Focus to develop formal specifications in a qualitative fashion; ii) we partially extend Focus theory to a fuzzy one which allows the specification of fuzzy components and fuzzy interactions. While the former provides a methodology for approximating I/O behaviors under imprecision, the latter enables to capture a more quantitative view of specification properties such as realizability.Comment: In Proceedings FESCA 2015, arXiv:1503.0437

An overview of decision table literature 1982-1995.

This report gives an overview of the literature on decision tables over the past 15 years. As much as possible, for each reference, an author supplied abstract, a number of keywords and a classification are provided. In some cases own comments are added. The purpose of these comments is to show where, how and why decision tables are used. The literature is classified according to application area, theoretical versus practical character, year of publication, country or origin (not necessarily country of publication) and the language of the document. After a description of the scope of the interview, classification results and the classification by topic are presented. The main body of the paper is the ordered list of publications with abstract, classification and comments.

A synthesis of fuzzy rule-based system verification.

The verification of fuzzy rule bases for anomalies has received increasing attention these last few years. Many different approaches have been suggested and many are still under investigation. In this paper, we give a synthesis of methods proposed in literature that try to extend the verification of clasical rule bases to the case of fuzzy knowledge modelling, without needing a set of representative input. Within this area of fyzzy V&V we identify two dual lines of thought respectively leading to what is identified as static and dynamic anomaly detection methods. Static anomaly detection essentially tries to use similarity, affinity or matching measures to identify anomalies wihin a fuzzy rule base. It is assumed that the detection methods can be the same as those used in a non-fuzzy environment, except that the formerly mentioned measures indicate the degree of matching of two fuzzy expressions. Dynamic anomaly detection starts from the basic idea that any anomaly within a knowledge representation formalism, i.c. fuzzy if-then rules, can be identified by performing a dynamic analysis of the knowledge system, even without providing special input to the system. By imposing a constraint on the results of inference for an anomaly not to occur, one creates definitions of the anomalies that can only be verified if the inference pocess, and thereby the fuzzy inference operator is involved in the analysis. The major outcome of the confrontation between both approaches is that their results, stated in terms of necessary and/or sufficient conditions for anomaly detection within a particular situation, are difficult to reconcile. The duality between approaces seems to have translated into a duality in results. This article addresses precisely this issue by presenting a theoretical framework which anables us to effectively evaluate the results of both static and dynamic verification theories.