62,264 research outputs found
Abstractions and sensor design in partial-information, reactive controller synthesis
Automated synthesis of reactive control protocols from temporal logic
specifications has recently attracted considerable attention in various
applications in, for example, robotic motion planning, network management, and
hardware design. An implicit and often unrealistic assumption in this past work
is the availability of complete and precise sensing information during the
execution of the controllers. In this paper, we use an abstraction procedure
for systems with partial observation and propose a formalism to investigate
effects of limitations in sensing. The abstraction procedure enables the
existing synthesis methods with partial observation to be applicable and
efficient for systems with infinite (or finite but large number of) states.
This formalism enables us to systematically discover sensing modalities
necessary in order to render the underlying synthesis problems feasible. We use
counterexamples, which witness unrealizability potentially due to the
limitations in sensing and the coarseness in the abstract system, and
interpolation-based techniques to refine the model and the sensing modalities,
i.e., to identify new sensors to be included, in such synthesis problems. We
demonstrate the method on examples from robotic motion planning.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Accepted at American Control Conference 201
A multi-paradigm language for reactive synthesis
This paper proposes a language for describing reactive synthesis problems
that integrates imperative and declarative elements. The semantics is defined
in terms of two-player turn-based infinite games with full information.
Currently, synthesis tools accept linear temporal logic (LTL) as input, but
this description is less structured and does not facilitate the expression of
sequential constraints. This motivates the use of a structured programming
language to specify synthesis problems. Transition systems and guarded commands
serve as imperative constructs, expressed in a syntax based on that of the
modeling language Promela. The syntax allows defining which player controls
data and control flow, and separating a program into assumptions and
guarantees. These notions are necessary for input to game solvers. The
integration of imperative and declarative paradigms allows using the paradigm
that is most appropriate for expressing each requirement. The declarative part
is expressed in the LTL fragment of generalized reactivity(1), which admits
efficient synthesis algorithms, extended with past LTL. The implementation
translates Promela to input for the Slugs synthesizer and is written in Python.
The AMBA AHB bus case study is revisited and synthesized efficiently,
identifying the need to reorder binary decision diagrams during strategy
construction, in order to prevent the exponential blowup observed in previous
work.Comment: In Proceedings SYNT 2015, arXiv:1602.0078
Synthesizing a Lego Forklift Controller in GR(1): A Case Study
Reactive synthesis is an automated procedure to obtain a
correct-by-construction reactive system from a given specification. GR(1) is a
well-known fragment of linear temporal logic (LTL) where synthesis is possible
using a polynomial symbolic algorithm. We conducted a case study to learn about
the challenges that software engineers may face when using GR(1) synthesis for
the development of a reactive robotic system. In the case study we developed
two variants of a forklift controller, deployed on a Lego robot. The case study
employs LTL specification patterns as an extension of the GR(1) specification
language, an examination of two specification variants for execution
scheduling, traceability from the synthesized controller to constraints in the
specification, and generated counter strategies to support understanding
reasons for unrealizability. We present the specifications we developed, our
observations, and challenges faced during the case study.Comment: In Proceedings SYNT 2015, arXiv:1602.0078
Applying Formal Methods to Networking: Theory, Techniques and Applications
Despite its great importance, modern network infrastructure is remarkable for
the lack of rigor in its engineering. The Internet which began as a research
experiment was never designed to handle the users and applications it hosts
today. The lack of formalization of the Internet architecture meant limited
abstractions and modularity, especially for the control and management planes,
thus requiring for every new need a new protocol built from scratch. This led
to an unwieldy ossified Internet architecture resistant to any attempts at
formal verification, and an Internet culture where expediency and pragmatism
are favored over formal correctness. Fortunately, recent work in the space of
clean slate Internet design---especially, the software defined networking (SDN)
paradigm---offers the Internet community another chance to develop the right
kind of architecture and abstractions. This has also led to a great resurgence
in interest of applying formal methods to specification, verification, and
synthesis of networking protocols and applications. In this paper, we present a
self-contained tutorial of the formidable amount of work that has been done in
formal methods, and present a survey of its applications to networking.Comment: 30 pages, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial
- …