A new approach for diagnosability analysis of Petri nets using Verifier Nets

In this paper, we analyze the diagnosability properties of labeled Petri nets. We consider the standard notion of diagnosability of languages, requiring that every occurrence of an unobservable fault event be eventually detected, as well as the stronger notion of diagnosability in K steps, where the detection must occur within a fixed bound of K event occurrences after the fault. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for these two notions of diagnosability for both bounded and unbounded Petri nets and then present an algorithmic technique for testing the conditions based on linear programming. Our approach is novel and based on the analysis of the reachability/coverability graph of a special Petri net, called Verifier Net, that is built from the Petri net model of the given system. In the case of systems that are diagnosable in K steps, we give a procedure to compute the bound K. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that necessary and sufficient conditions for diagnosability and diagnosability in K steps of labeled unbounded Petri nets are presented

The Complexity of Codiagnosability for Discrete Event and Timed Systems

In this paper we study the fault codiagnosis problem for discrete event systems given by finite automata (FA) and timed systems given by timed automata (TA). We provide a uniform characterization of codiagnosability for FA and TA which extends the necessary and sufficient condition that characterizes diagnosability. We also settle the complexity of the codiagnosability problems both for FA and TA and show that codiagnosability is PSPACE-complete in both cases. For FA this improves on the previously known bound (EXPTIME) and for TA it is a new result. Finally we address the codiagnosis problem for TA under bounded resources and show it is 2EXPTIME-complete.Comment: 24 pages

A weighted pair graph representation for reconstructibility of Boolean control networks

A new concept of weighted pair graphs (WPGs) is proposed to represent a new reconstructibility definition for Boolean control networks (BCNs), which is a generalization of the reconstructibility definition given in [Fornasini & Valcher, TAC2013, Def. 4]. Based on the WPG representation, an effective algorithm for determining the new reconstructibility notion for BCNs is designed with the help of the theories of finite automata and formal languages. We prove that a BCN is not reconstructible iff its WPG has a complete subgraph. Besides, we prove that a BCN is reconstructible in the sense of [Fornasini & Valcher, TAC2013, Def. 4] iff its WPG has no cycles, which is simpler to be checked than the condition in [Fornasini & Valcher, TAC2013, Thm. 4].Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, accepted by SIAM Journal on Control and Optimizatio

Distributed synchronous diagnosis of discrete-event systems

Recently, the centralized and decentralized synchronous diagnosis of discreteevent systems have been proposed in the literature. In this work, we propose a di erent synchronous diagnosis strategy called distributed synchronous diagnosis. In this scheme, local diagnosers are computed based on the observation of the fault-free behavior models of the system components. It is considered that these local diagnosers are separated into networks, and are capable of communicating the occurrence of events and their current state estimate to other local diagnosers that belong to the same network. The diagnosers are implemented considering an speci c communication protocol that re nes the state estimate of the faultfree behavior of the system modules, reducing, therefore, the augmented fault-free language considered for synchronous diagnosis. In order to do so, boolean conditions are added to the transitions of the fault-free component models, which check if the occurrence of an observable event is possible according to the current state estimate of other local diagnosers. This leads to the notion of distributed synchronous diagnosability. An algorithm to verify the distributed synchronous diagnosability with polynomial complexity in the state-space of the system component models is proposed.Recentemente, o diagnóstico síncrono centralizado e descentralizado de sistemas a eventos discretos foi proposto na literatura. Neste trabalho, propomos uma estratégia de diagnóstico síncrono diferente, denominada diagnóstico síncrono distribuído. Neste esquema, diagnosticadores locais são construídos com base na observação do comportamento livre de falha dos componentes do sistema. Considera-se que esses diagnosticadores locais são agrupados em redes de comunicação e capazes de informar a ocorrência de eventos e sua estimativa de estado atual a outros diagnosticadores locais pertencentes à mesma rede. Os diagnosticadores são implementados considerando um protocolo de comunicação específico, o qual refina a estimativa de estado do comportamento livre de falha dos módulos do sistema, reduzindo, portanto, a linguagem aumentada livre de falha considerada no diagnóstico síncrono. Isso é feito com a adição de condições booleanas para a transposição de transições dos modelos livre de falha dos componentes do sistema, as quais verificam se a ocorrência de um evento observável é possível de acordo com a estimativa do estado atual dos outros diagnosticadores locais. Isso leva à noção de diagnosticabilidade síncrona distribuída. Um algoritmo para verificar a diagnosticabilidade síncrona distribuída com complexidade polinomial no espaço de estados dos modelos dos componentes do sistema é proposto

Diagnosability of Fuzzy Discrete Event Systems

In order to more effectively cope with the real-world problems of vagueness, {\it fuzzy discrete event systems} (FDESs) were proposed recently, and the supervisory control theory of FDESs was developed. In view of the importance of failure diagnosis, in this paper, we present an approach of the failure diagnosis in the framework of FDESs. More specifically: (1) We formalize the definition of diagnosability for FDESs, in which the observable set and failure set of events are {\it fuzzy}, that is, each event has certain degree to be observable and unobservable, and, also, each event may possess different possibility of failure occurring. (2) Through the construction of observability-based diagnosers of FDESs, we investigate its some basic properties. In particular, we present a necessary and sufficient condition for diagnosability of FDESs. (3) Some examples serving to illuminate the applications of the diagnosability of FDESs are described. To conclude, some related issues are raised for further consideration.Comment: 14 pages; revisions have been mad

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

A Component-oriented Framework for Autonomous Agents

The design of a complex system warrants a compositional methodology, i.e., composing simple components to obtain a larger system that exhibits their collective behavior in a meaningful way. We propose an automaton-based paradigm for compositional design of such systems where an action is accompanied by one or more preferences. At run-time, these preferences provide a natural fallback mechanism for the component, while at design-time they can be used to reason about the behavior of the component in an uncertain physical world. Using structures that tell us how to compose preferences and actions, we can compose formal representations of individual components or agents to obtain a representation of the composed system. We extend Linear Temporal Logic with two unary connectives that reflect the compositional structure of the actions, and show how it can be used to diagnose undesired behavior by tracing the falsification of a specification back to one or more culpable components