516 research outputs found
Better abstractions for timed automata
We consider the reachability problem for timed automata. A standard solution
to this problem involves computing a search tree whose nodes are abstractions
of zones. These abstractions preserve underlying simulation relations on the
state space of the automaton. For both effectiveness and efficiency reasons,
they are parametrized by the maximal lower and upper bounds (LU-bounds)
occurring in the guards of the automaton. We consider the aLU abstraction
defined by Behrmann et al. Since this abstraction can potentially yield
non-convex sets, it has not been used in implementations. We prove that aLU
abstraction is the biggest abstraction with respect to LU-bounds that is sound
and complete for reachability. We also provide an efficient technique to use
the aLU abstraction to solve the reachability problem.Comment: Extended version of LICS 2012 paper (conference paper till v6). in
Information and Computation, available online 27 July 201
Algorithmic Verification of Continuous and Hybrid Systems
We provide a tutorial introduction to reachability computation, a class of
computational techniques that exports verification technology toward continuous
and hybrid systems. For open under-determined systems, this technique can
sometimes replace an infinite number of simulations.Comment: In Proceedings INFINITY 2013, arXiv:1402.661
Zone-based verification of timed automata: extrapolations, simulations and what next?
Timed automata have been introduced by Rajeev Alur and David Dill in the
early 90's. In the last decades, timed automata have become the de facto model
for the verification of real-time systems. Algorithms for timed automata are
based on the traversal of their state-space using zones as a symbolic
representation. Since the state-space is infinite, termination relies on finite
abstractions that yield a finite representation of the reachable states.
The first solution to get finite abstractions was based on extrapolations of
zones, and has been implemented in the industry-strength tool Uppaal. A
different approach based on simulations between zones has emerged in the last
ten years, and has been implemented in the fully open source tool TChecker. The
simulation-based approach has led to new efficient algorithms for reachability
and liveness in timed automata, and has also been extended to richer models
like weighted timed automata, and timed automata with diagonal constraints and
updates.
In this article, we survey the extrapolation and simulation techniques, and
discuss some open challenges for the future.Comment: Invited contribution at FORMATS'2
Lazy Abstraction-Based Controller Synthesis
We present lazy abstraction-based controller synthesis (ABCS) for
continuous-time nonlinear dynamical systems against reach-avoid and safety
specifications. State-of-the-art multi-layered ABCS pre-computes multiple
finite-state abstractions of varying granularity and applies reactive synthesis
to the coarsest abstraction whenever feasible, but adaptively considers finer
abstractions when necessary. Lazy ABCS improves this technique by constructing
abstractions on demand. Our insight is that the abstract transition relation
only needs to be locally computed for a small set of frontier states at the
precision currently required by the synthesis algorithm. We show that lazy ABCS
can significantly outperform previous multi-layered ABCS algorithms: on
standard benchmarks, lazy ABCS is more than 4 times faster
Fast algorithms for handling diagonal constraints in timed automata
A popular method for solving reachability in timed automata proceeds by
enumerating reachable sets of valuations represented as zones. A na\"ive
enumeration of zones does not terminate. Various termination mechanisms have
been studied over the years. Coming up with efficient termination mechanisms
has been remarkably more challenging when the automaton has diagonal
constraints in guards.
In this paper, we propose a new termination mechanism for timed automata with
diagonal constraints based on a new simulation relation between zones.
Experiments with an implementation of this simulation show significant gains
over existing methods.Comment: Shorter version of this article to appear in CAV 201
Towards Reliable Benchmarks of Timed Automata
The verification of the time-dependent behavior of safety-critical systems is important, as design problems often arise from complex timing conditions. One of the most common formalisms for modeling timed systems is the timed automaton, which introduces clock variables to represent the elapse of time. Various tools and algorithms have been developed for the verification of timed automata. However, it is hard to decide which one to use for a given problem as no exhaustive benchmark of their effectiveness and efficiency can be found in the literature. Moreover, there does not exist a public set of models that can be used as an appropriate benchmark suite. In our work we have collected publicly available timed automaton models and industrial case studies and we used them to compare the efficiency of the algorithms implemented in the Theta model checker. In this paper, we present our preliminary benchmark suite, and demonstrate the results of the performed measurements
Backward Reachability Analysis for Timed Automata with Data Variables
Efficient techniques for reachability analysis of timed automata are zone-based methods that explore the reachable state space from the initial state, and SMT-based methods that perform backward search from the target states. It is also possible to perform backward exploration based on zones, but calculating predecessor states for systems with data variables is computationally expensive, prohibiting the successful application of this approach so far. In this paper we overcome this limitation by combining zone-based backward exploration with the weakest precondition operation for data variables. This combination allows us to handle diagonal constraints efficiently as opposed to zone-based forward search where most approaches require additional operations to ensure correctness. We demonstrate the applicability and compare the efficiency of the algorithm to existing forward exploration approaches by measurements performed on industrial case studies. Although the large number of states often prevents successful verification, we show that data variables can be efficienlty handled by the weakest precondition operation. This way our new approach complements existing techniques
- …