Towards Model Checking Executable UML Specifications in mCRL2

We describe a translation of a subset of executable UML (xUML) into the process algebraic specification language mCRL2. This subset includes class diagrams with class generalisations, and state machines with signal and change events. The choice of these xUML constructs is dictated by their use in the modelling of railway interlocking systems. The long-term goal is to verify safety properties of interlockings modelled in xUML using the mCRL2 and LTSmin toolsets. Initial verification of an interlocking toy example demonstrates that the safety properties of model instances depend crucially on the run-to-completion assumptions

Verifying UML/OCL operation contracts

In current model-driven development approaches, software models are the primary artifacts of the development process. Therefore, assessment of their correctness is a key issue to ensure the quality of the final application. Research on model consistency has focused mostly on the models' static aspects. Instead, this paper addresses the verification of their dynamic aspects, expressed as a set of operations defined by means of pre/postcondition contracts. This paper presents an automatic method based on Constraint Programming to verify UML models extended with OCL constraints and operation contracts. In our approach, both static and dynamic aspects are translated into a Constraint Satisfaction Problem. Then, compliance of the operations with respect to several correctness properties such as operation executability or determinism are formally verified

Formal Verification of Tokeneer Behaviours Modelled in fUML Using CSP

Much research work has been done on formalizing UML diagrams, but less has focused on using this formalization to analyze the dynamic behaviours between formalized components. In this paper we propose using a subset of fUML (Foundational Subset for Executable UML) as a semi-formal language, and formalizing it to the process algebraic specification language CSP, to make use of FDR as a model checker. Our formalization includes modelling the asynchronous communication framework used within fUML. This allows different interpretations of the communications model to be evaluated. To illustrate the approach, we use the modelling of the Tokeneer ID Station specifications into fUML, and formalize them in CSP to check if the model is deadlock free

Automatic generation of CSP || B skeletons from xUML models

CSP ∥ B is a formal approach to specification that combines CSP and B. In this paper we present our tool that automatically translates a subset of executable UML (xUML) models into CSP ∥ B, for the purpose of verification and increased validation at the early stages of a software engineering development lifecycle. The tool is being developed for our industrial collaborators, AWE plc, in order to strengthen their software engineering process which uses xUML. As part of this process, AWE and Kennedy Carter Ltd. have built an xUML to SPARK Ada code generator, which is also employed to contribute a higher level of safety assurance at the latter stages of the lifecycle. Our tool is based on a model-text transformation strategy that uses the xUML meta-model to map to CSP and B constructs. The tool generates machine readable CSP and B; we present a simple example to demonstrate the transformation strategy, and the analysis of the resulting specification

Automatic generation of CSP||B skeletons from xUML models

CSP||B is a formal approach to specification that combines CSP and B. In this paper we present our tool that automatically translates a subset of executable UML (xUML) models into CSP parallel to B, for the purpose of verification and increased validation at the early stages of a software engineering development lifecycle. The tool is being developed for our industrial collaborators, AWE plc, in order to strengthen their software engineering process which uses xUML. As part of this process, AWE and Kennedy Carter Ltd. have built an xUML to SPARK Ada code generator, which is also employed to contribute a higher level of safety assurance at the latter stages of the lifecycle. Our tool is based on a model-text transformation strategy that uses the xUML meta-model to map to CSP and B constructs. The tool generates machine readable CSP and B; we present a simple example to demonstrate the transformation strategy, and the analysis of the resulting specification

Verifiable resilience in architectural reconfiguration

This thesis addresses the formal veri cation of a support infrastructure for resilient dynami- cally recon gurable systems. A component-based system, whose architectural con guration may change at runtime, is classed as dynamically recon gurable. Such systems require a support infrastructure for the control of recon gurations to provide resilience. The veri cation of such recon guration support increases the trust that developers and stakeholders may place on the system. The thesis de nes an architectural model of an infrastructure of services for the support of dynamic recon guration and takes a formal approach to the de nition and veri cation of one aspect of the infrastructure. The execution of recon guration policies in a recon guration infrastructure provides guidance to the architectural change to be enacted on a recon gurable system. These recon guration policies are often produced using a language with informal syntax and no formal semantics. Predicting properties of these policies governing recon guring systems has yet to be attempted. In this thesis, we de ne RPL { a recon guration policy language with a formal syntax and semantics. With the use of a case study, theories of RPL and an example policy are developed and the veri cation of key proof obligations and validation conjectures of policies expressed in RPL is demonstrated. The contribution of the thesis is two-fold. Firstly, the architectural de nition of a support infrastructure provides a lasting contribution in that it suggests a clear direction for future work in dynamic recon guration. Secondly, through the formal de nition of RPL and the veri cation of properties of policies, the thesis provides a basis for the use of formal veri cation in dynamic recon guration and, more speci cally, in policies for dynamic recon guration.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEPSRC DIRC ProjectGBUnited Kingdo