84,633 research outputs found
Hazard elimination using backwards reachability techniques in discrete and hybrid models
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, February 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-181).One of the most important steps in hazard analysis is determining whether a particular design can reach a hazardous state and, if it could, how to change the design to ensure that it does not. In most cases, this is done through testing or simulation or even less rigorous processes--none of which provide much confidence for complex systems. Because state spaces for software can be enormous (which is why testing is not an effective way to accomplish the goal), the innovative Hazard Automaton Reduction Algorithm (HARA) involves starting at a hypothetical unsafe state and using backwards reachability techniques to obtain enough information to determine how to design in order to ensure that state cannot be reached. State machine models are very powerful, but also present greater challenges in terms of reachability, including the backwards reachability needed to implement the Hazard Automaton Reduction Algorithm. The key to solving the backwards reachability problem lies in converting the state machine model into a controls state space formulation and creating a state transition matrix. Each successive step backward from the hazardous state then involves only one n by n matrix manipulation. Therefore, only a finite number of matrix manipulations is necessary to determine whether or not a state is reachable from another state, thus providing the same information that could be obtained from a complete backwards reachability graph of the state machine model. Unlike model checking, the computational cost does not increase as greatly with the number of backward states that need to be visited to obtain the information necessary to ensure that the design is safe or to redesign it to be safe. The functionality and optimality of this approach is proved in both discrete and hybrid cases.(cont.) The new approach of the Hazard Automaton Reduction Algorithm combined with backwards reachability controls techniques was demonstrated on a blackbox model of a real aircraft altitude switch. The algorithm is being implemented in a commercial specification language (SpecTRM-RL). SpecTRM-RL is formally extended to include continuous and hybrid models. An analysis of the safety of a medium term conflict detection algorithm (MTCD) for aircraft, that is being developed and tested by Eurocontrol for use in European Air Traffic Control, is performed. Attempts to validate such conflict detection algorithms is currently challenging researchers world wide. Model checking is unsatisfactory in general for this problem because of the lack of a termination guarantee in backwards reachability using model checking. The new state-space controls approach does not encounter this problem.by Natasha Anita Neogi.Ph.D
Design and Optimisation of the FlyFast Front-end for Attribute-based Coordination
Collective Adaptive Systems (CAS) consist of a large number of interacting
objects. The design of such systems requires scalable analysis tools and
methods, which have necessarily to rely on some form of approximation of the
system's actual behaviour. Promising techniques are those based on mean-field
approximation. The FlyFast model-checker uses an on-the-fly algorithm for
bounded PCTL model-checking of selected individual(s) in the context of very
large populations whose global behaviour is approximated using deterministic
limit mean-field techniques. Recently, a front-end for FlyFast has been
proposed which provides a modelling language, PiFF in the sequel, for the
Predicate-based Interaction for FlyFast. In this paper we present details of
PiFF design and an approach to state-space reduction based on probabilistic
bisimulation for inhomogeneous DTMCs.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2017, arXiv:1707.0366
Feedback Controlled Software Systems
Software systems generally suffer from a certain fragility in the face of disturbances such as bugs, unforeseen user input, unmodeled interactions with other software components, and so on. A single such disturbance can make the machine on which the software is executing hang or crash. We postulate that what is required to address this fragility is a general means of using feedback to stabilize these systems. In this paper we develop a preliminary dynamical systems model of an arbitrary iterative software process along with the conceptual framework for stabilizing it in the presence of disturbances. To keep the computational requirements of the controllers low, randomization and approximation are used. We describe our initial attempts to apply the model to a faulty list sorter, using feedback to improve its performance. Methods by which software robustness can be enhanced by distributing a task between nodes each of which are capable of selecting the best input to process are also examined, and the particular case of a sorting system consisting of a network of partial sorters, some of which may be buggy or even malicious, is examined
Petri nets for systems and synthetic biology
We give a description of a Petri net-based framework for
modelling and analysing biochemical pathways, which uni¯es the qualita-
tive, stochastic and continuous paradigms. Each perspective adds its con-
tribution to the understanding of the system, thus the three approaches
do not compete, but complement each other. We illustrate our approach
by applying it to an extended model of the three stage cascade, which
forms the core of the ERK signal transduction pathway. Consequently
our focus is on transient behaviour analysis. We demonstrate how quali-
tative descriptions are abstractions over stochastic or continuous descrip-
tions, and show that the stochastic and continuous models approximate
each other. Although our framework is based on Petri nets, it can be
applied more widely to other formalisms which are used to model and
analyse biochemical networks
Symbolic Reachability Analysis of B through ProB and LTSmin
We present a symbolic reachability analysis approach for B that can provide a
significant speedup over traditional explicit state model checking. The
symbolic analysis is implemented by linking ProB to LTSmin, a high-performance
language independent model checker. The link is achieved via LTSmin's PINS
interface, allowing ProB to benefit from LTSmin's analysis algorithms, while
only writing a few hundred lines of glue-code, along with a bridge between ProB
and C using ZeroMQ. ProB supports model checking of several formal
specification languages such as B, Event-B, Z and TLA. Our experiments are
based on a wide variety of B-Method and Event-B models to demonstrate the
efficiency of the new link. Among the tested categories are state space
generation and deadlock detection; but action detection and invariant checking
are also feasible in principle. In many cases we observe speedups of several
orders of magnitude. We also compare the results with other approaches for
improving model checking, such as partial order reduction or symmetry
reduction. We thus provide a new scalable, symbolic analysis algorithm for the
B-Method and Event-B, along with a platform to integrate other model checking
improvements via LTSmin in the future
A probabilistic model checking approach to analysing reliability, availability, and maintainability of a single satellite system
Satellites now form a core component for space
based systems such as GPS and GLONAS which provide
location and timing information for a variety of uses. Such
satellites are designed to operate in-orbit and have lifetimes of
10 years or more. Reliability, availability and maintainability
(RAM) analysis of these systems has been indispensable in
the design phase of satellites in order to achieve minimum
failures or to increase mean time between failures (MTBF)
and thus to plan maintainability strategies, optimise reliability
and maximise availability. In this paper, we present formal
modelling of a single satellite and logical specification of
its reliability, availability and maintainability properties. The
probabilistic model checker PRISM has been used to perform
automated quantitative analyses of these properties
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