Towards formal models and languages for verifiable Multi-Robot Systems

Incorrect operations of a Multi-Robot System (MRS) may not only lead to unsatisfactory results, but can also cause economic losses and threats to safety. These threats may not always be apparent, since they may arise as unforeseen consequences of the interactions between elements of the system. This call for tools and techniques that can help in providing guarantees about MRSs behaviour. We think that, whenever possible, these guarantees should be backed up by formal proofs to complement traditional approaches based on testing and simulation. We believe that tailored linguistic support to specify MRSs is a major step towards this goal. In particular, reducing the gap between typical features of an MRS and the level of abstraction of the linguistic primitives would simplify both the specification of these systems and the verification of their properties. In this work, we review different agent-oriented languages and their features; we then consider a selection of case studies of interest and implement them useing the surveyed languages. We also evaluate and compare effectiveness of the proposed solution, considering, in particular, easiness of expressing non-trivial behaviour.Comment: Changed formattin

Proceedings of International Workshop "Global Computing: Programming Environments, Languages, Security and Analysis of Systems"

According to the IST/ FET proactive initiative on GLOBAL COMPUTING, the goal is to obtain techniques (models, frameworks, methods, algorithms) for constructing systems that are flexible, dependable, secure, robust and efficient. The dominant concerns are not those of representing and manipulating data efficiently but rather those of handling the co-ordination and interaction, security, reliability, robustness, failure modes, and control of risk of the entities in the system and the overall design, description and performance of the system itself. Completely different paradigms of computer science may have to be developed to tackle these issues effectively. The research should concentrate on systems having the following characteristics: • The systems are composed of autonomous computational entities where activity is not centrally controlled, either because global control is impossible or impractical, or because the entities are created or controlled by different owners. • The computational entities are mobile, due to the movement of the physical platforms or by movement of the entity from one platform to another. • The configuration varies over time. For instance, the system is open to the introduction of new computational entities and likewise their deletion. The behaviour of the entities may vary over time. • The systems operate with incomplete information about the environment. For instance, information becomes rapidly out of date and mobility requires information about the environment to be discovered. The ultimate goal of the research action is to provide a solid scientific foundation for the design of such systems, and to lay the groundwork for achieving effective principles for building and analysing such systems. This workshop covers the aspects related to languages and programming environments as well as analysis of systems and resources involving 9 projects (AGILE , DART, DEGAS , MIKADO, MRG, MYTHS, PEPITO, PROFUNDIS, SECURE) out of the 13 founded under the initiative. After an year from the start of the projects, the goal of the workshop is to fix the state of the art on the topics covered by the two clusters related to programming environments and analysis of systems as well as to devise strategies and new ideas to profitably continue the research effort towards the overall objective of the initiative. We acknowledge the Dipartimento di Informatica and Tlc of the University of Trento, the Comune di Rovereto, the project DEGAS for partially funding the event and the Events and Meetings Office of the University of Trento for the valuable collaboration

CRAFTING THE MIND OF PROSOCS AGENTS

PROSOCS agents are software agents that are built according to the KGP model of agency. KGP is used as a model for the mind of the agent, so that the agent can act autonomously using a collection of logic theories, providing the mind's reasoning functionalities. The behavior of the agent is controlled by a cycle theory that specifies the agent's preferred patterns of operation. The implementation of the mind's generic functionality in PROSOCS is worked out in such a way so it can be instantiated by the platform for different agents across applications. In this context, the development of a concrete example illustrates how an agent developer might program the generic functionality of the mind for a simple application. 20 2-4 105 131 Cited By :1

DoMAIns: Domain-based Modeling for Ambient Intelligence

Ambient Intelligence and Smart Home Automation systems are currently emerging as feasible and ready to exploit solutions to support more intelligent features inside future and current homes. Thanks to increased availability of off-the-shelf components and to relatively easy to implement solutions we are experiencing a steady evolution of households, causing an ever-increasing users’ awareness of the capabilities of such innovative environments. To foster effective adoption of Smart Home Automation technologies in our home environments, traditional architectural and plant design must be complemented by sound design methodologies and tools, supporting the whole environment design cycle, including for example modeling, simulation and emulation, as well as, when feasible, formal model-checking and verification. Several research efforts have already addressed the design of expressive modeling tools, mostly based on Semantic Web technologies, as well as of suitable platforms for adding interoperation and rule-based intelligence to home environments. This paper proposes a new modeling methodology designed to fit the different phases of Intelligent Environments design, with a particular focus on validation and verification of the whole system. Carefully designed separation of modeled entities permits to exploit the DoMAIns framework during all phases of the environment design, from early abstract conception to the final in-field deployment. The DoMAIns design methodology is applied to a sample use case that involves comprehensive modeling and simulation of a Bank Security Booth, including the environment, the control algorithms, the automation devices and the user. Results show that the approach is feasible and that can easily handle different types of environment modeling, required in the different design phases, and for each of them it may support simulation, emulation, or other verification techniques

Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy

This book contains the contributions of the Special Issue entitled "Agents and Robots for Reliable Engineered Autonomy". The Special Issue was based on the successful first edition of the "Workshop on Agents and Robots for reliable Engineered Autonomy" (AREA 2020), co-located with the 24th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2020). The aim was to bring together researchers from autonomous agents, as well as software engineering and robotics communities, as combining knowledge from these three research areas may lead to innovative approaches that solve complex problems related to the verification and validation of autonomous robotic systems

Verifiable Learned Behaviors via Motion Primitive Composition: Applications to Scooping of Granular Media

A robotic behavior model that can reliably generate behaviors from natural language inputs in real time would substantially expedite the adoption of industrial robots due to enhanced system flexibility. To facilitate these efforts, we construct a framework in which learned behaviors, created by a natural language abstractor, are verifiable by construction. Leveraging recent advancements in motion primitives and probabilistic verification, we construct a natural-language behavior abstractor that generates behaviors by synthesizing a directed graph over the provided motion primitives. If these component motion primitives are constructed according to the criteria we specify, the resulting behaviors are probabilistically verifiable. We demonstrate this verifiable behavior generation capacity in both simulation on an exploration task and on hardware with a robot scooping granular media

Security Verification of Secure MANET Routing Protocols

Secure mobile ad hoc network (MANET) routing protocols are not tested thoroughly against their security properties. Previous research focuses on verifying secure, reactive, accumulation-based routing protocols. An improved methodology and framework for secure MANET routing protocol verification is proposed which includes table-based and proactive protocols. The model checker, SPIN, is selected as the core of the secure MANET verification framework. Security is defined by both accuracy and availability: a protocol forms accurate routes and these routes are always accurate. The framework enables exhaustive verification of protocols and results in a counter-example if the protocol is deemed insecure. The framework is applied to models of the Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) and Secure OLSR protocol against five attack vectors. These vectors are based on known attacks against each protocol. Vulnerabilities consistent with published findings are automatically revealed. No unknown attacks were found; however, future attack vectors may lead to new attacks. The new framework for verifying secure MANET protocols extends verification capabilities to table-based and proactive protocols