115,016 research outputs found
Model checking time-constrained scenario-based specifications
We consider the problem of model checking message-passing systems with real-time requirements. As behavioural specifications, we use message sequence charts (MSCs) annotated with timing constraints. Our system model is a network of communicating finite state machines with local clocks, whose global behaviour can be regarded as a timed automaton. Our goal is to verify that all timed behaviours exhibited by the system conform to the timing constraints imposed by the specification. In general, this corresponds to checking inclusion for timed languages, which is an undecidable problem even for timed regular languages. However, we show that we can translate regular collections of time-constrained MSCs into a special class of event-clock automata that can be determinized and complemented, thus permitting an algorithmic solution to the model checking problem
Towards sociable virtual humans : multimodal recognition of human input and behavior
One of the biggest obstacles for constructing effective sociable virtual humans lies in the failure of machines to recognize the desires, feelings and intentions of the human user. Virtual humans lack the ability to fully understand and decode the communication signals human users emit when communicating with each other. This article describes our research in overcoming this problem by developing senses for the virtual humans which enables them to hear and understand human speech, localize the human user in front of the display system, recognize hand postures and to recognize the emotional state of the human user by classifying facial expression. We report on the methods needed to perform these tasks in real-time and conclude with an outlook on promising research issues of the future
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Using formal methods to support testing
Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent
years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing
Talking Helps: Evolving Communicating Agents for the Predator-Prey Pursuit Problem
We analyze a general model of multi-agent communication in which all agents communicate simultaneously to a message board. A genetic algorithm is used to evolve multi-agent languages for the predator agents in a version of the predator-prey pursuit problem. We show that the resulting behavior of the communicating multi-agent system is equivalent to that of a Mealy finite state machine whose states are determined by the agentsā usage of the evolved language. Simulations show that the evolution of a communication language improves the performance of the predators. Increasing the language size (and thus increasing the number of possible states in the Mealy machine) improves the performance even further. Furthermore, the evolved communicating predators perform significantly better than all previous work on similar preys. We introduce a method for incrementally increasing
the language size which results in an effective coarse-to-fine search that significantly reduces the evolution time required to find a solution. We present some observations on the effects of language size, experimental setup, and prey difficulty on the evolved Mealy machines. In particular, we observe that the start state is often revisited, and incrementally increasing the language size results in smaller Mealy machines. Finally, a simple rule is derived that provides a pessimistic estimate on the minimum language size that should be used for any multi-agent problem
On Modelling and Analysis of Dynamic Reconfiguration of Dependable Real-Time Systems
This paper motivates the need for a formalism for the modelling and analysis
of dynamic reconfiguration of dependable real-time systems. We present
requirements that the formalism must meet, and use these to evaluate well
established formalisms and two process algebras that we have been developing,
namely, Webpi and CCSdp. A simple case study is developed to illustrate the
modelling power of these two formalisms. The paper shows how Webpi and CCSdp
represent a significant step forward in modelling adaptive and dependable
real-time systems.Comment: Presented and published at DEPEND 201
Testing timed systems modeled by stream X-machines
Stream X-machines have been used to specify real systems where complex data structures. They are a variety of extended finite state machine where a shared memory is used to represent communications between the components of systems. In this paper we introduce an extension of the Stream X-machines formalism in order to specify systems that present temporal requirements. We add time in two different ways. First, we consider that (output) actions take time to be performed. Second, our formalism allows to specify timeouts. Timeouts represent the time a system can wait for the environment to react without changing its internal state. Since timeous affect the set of available actions of the system, a relation focusing on the functional behavior of systems, that is, the actions that they can perform, must explicitly take into account the possible timeouts. In this paper we also propose a formal testing methodology allowing to systematically test a system with respect to a specification. Finally, we introduce a test derivation algorithm. Given a specification, the derived test suite is sound and complete, that is, a system under test successfully passes the test suite if and only if this system conforms to the specification
Passively Mobile Communicating Logarithmic Space Machines
We propose a new theoretical model for passively mobile Wireless Sensor
Networks. We call it the PALOMA model, standing for PAssively mobile
LOgarithmic space MAchines. The main modification w.r.t. the Population
Protocol model is that agents now, instead of being automata, are Turing
Machines whose memory is logarithmic in the population size n. Note that the
new model is still easily implementable with current technology. We focus on
complete communication graphs. We define the complexity class PLM, consisting
of all symmetric predicates on input assignments that are stably computable by
the PALOMA model. We assume that the agents are initially identical.
Surprisingly, it turns out that the PALOMA model can assign unique consecutive
ids to the agents and inform them of the population size! This allows us to
give a direct simulation of a Deterministic Turing Machine of O(nlogn) space,
thus, establishing that any symmetric predicate in SPACE(nlogn) also belongs to
PLM. We next prove that the PALOMA model can simulate the Community Protocol
model, thus, improving the previous lower bound to all symmetric predicates in
NSPACE(nlogn). Going one step further, we generalize the simulation of the
deterministic TM to prove that the PALOMA model can simulate a Nondeterministic
TM of O(nlogn) space. Although providing the same lower bound, the important
remark here is that the bound is now obtained in a direct manner, in the sense
that it does not depend on the simulation of a TM by a Pointer Machine.
Finally, by showing that a Nondeterministic TM of O(nlogn) space decides any
language stably computable by the PALOMA model, we end up with an exact
characterization for PLM: it is precisely the class of all symmetric predicates
in NSPACE(nlogn).Comment: 22 page
Development and validation of computational models of cellular interaction
In this paper we take the view that computational models of biological systems should satisfy two conditions ā
they should be able to predict function at a systems biology level, and robust techniques of validation against
biological models must be available. A modelling paradigm for developing a predictive computational model of
cellular interaction is described, and methods of providing robust validation against biological models are
explored, followed by a consideration of software issues
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