Automated Workarounds from Java Program Specifications based on SAT Solving

The failures that bugs in software lead to can sometimes be bypassed by the so-called workarounds: when a (faulty) routine fails, alternative routines that the system offers can be used in place of the failing one, to circumvent the failure. Existing approaches to workaround-based system recovery consider workarounds that are produced from equivalent method sequences, automatically computed from user-provided abstract models, or directly produced from user-provided equivalent sequences of operations. In this paper, we present two techniques for computing workarounds from Java code equipped with formal specifications, that improve previous approaches in two respects. First, the particular state where the failure originated is actively involved in computing workarounds, thus leading to repairs that are more state specific. Second, our techniques automatically compute workarounds on concrete program state characterizations, avoiding abstract software models and user-provided equivalences. The first technique uses SAT solving to compute a sequence of methods that is equivalent to a failing method on a specific failing state, but which can also be generalized to schemas for workaround reuse. The second technique directly exploits SAT to circumvent a failing method, building a state that mimics the (correct) behaviour of a failing routine, from a specific program state too. We perform an experimental evaluation based on case studies involving implementations of collections and a library for date arithmetic, showing that the techniques can effectively compute workarounds from complex contracts in an important number of cases, in time that makes them feasible to be used for run-time repairs. Our results also show that our state-specific workarounds enable us to produce repairs in many cases where previous workaround-based approaches are inapplicable.Fil: Uva, Marcelo Ariel. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto; ArgentinaFil: Ponzio, Pablo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto; ArgentinaFil: Regis, Germán. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto; ArgentinaFil: Aguirre, Nazareno Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto; ArgentinaFil: Frias, Marcelo Fabian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Development of a framework for automated systematic testing of safety-critical embedded systems

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”In this paper we introduce the development of a framework for testing safety-critical embedded systems based on the concepts of model-based testing. In model-based testing the test cases are derived from a model of the system under test. In our approach the model is an automaton model that is automatically extracted from the C-source code of the system under test. Beside random test data generation the test case generation uses formal methods, in detail model checking techniques. To find appropriate test cases we use the requirements defined in the system specification. To cover further execution paths we developed an additional, to our best knowledge, novel method based on special structural coverage criteria. We present preliminary results on the model extraction using a concrete industrial case study from the automotive domain

The use of data-mining for the automatic formation of tactics

This paper discusses the usse of data-mining for the automatic formation of tactics. It was presented at the Workshop on Computer-Supported Mathematical Theory Development held at IJCAR in 2004. The aim of this project is to evaluate the applicability of data-mining techniques to the automatic formation of tactics from large corpuses of proofs. We data-mine information from large proof corpuses to find commonly occurring patterns. These patterns are then evolved into tactics using genetic programming techniques

Metamodel-based model conformance and multiview consistency checking

Model-driven development, using languages such as UML and BON, often makes use of multiple diagrams (e.g., class and sequence diagrams) when modeling systems. These diagrams, presenting different views of a system of interest, may be inconsistent. A metamodel provides a unifying framework in which to ensure and check consistency, while at the same time providing the means to distinguish between valid and invalid models, that is, conformance. Two formal specifications of the metamodel for an object-oriented modeling language are presented, and it is shown how to use these specifications for model conformance and multiview consistency checking. Comparisons are made in terms of completeness and the level of automation each provide for checking multiview consistency and model conformance. The lessons learned from applying formal techniques to the problems of metamodeling, model conformance, and multiview consistency checking are summarized