222,624 research outputs found
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
IST Austria Thesis
The design and verification of concurrent systems remains an open challenge due to the non-determinism that arises from the inter-process communication. In particular, concurrent programs are notoriously difficult both to be written correctly and to be analyzed formally, as complex thread interaction has to be accounted for. The difficulties are further exacerbated when concurrent programs get executed on modern-day hardware, which contains various buffering and caching mechanisms for efficiency reasons. This causes further subtle non-determinism, which can often produce very unintuitive behavior of the concurrent programs. Model checking is at the forefront of tackling the verification problem, where the task is to decide, given as input a concurrent system and a desired property, whether the system satisfies the property. The inherent state-space explosion problem in model checking of concurrent systems causes naïve explicit methods not to scale, thus more inventive methods are required. One such method is stateless model checking (SMC), which explores in memory-efficient manner the program executions rather than the states of the program. State-of-the-art SMC is typically coupled with partial order reduction (POR) techniques, which argue that certain executions provably produce identical system behavior, thus limiting the amount of executions one needs to explore in order to cover all possible behaviors. Another method to tackle the state-space explosion is symbolic model checking, where the considered techniques operate on a succinct implicit representation of the input system rather than explicitly accessing the system. In this thesis we present new techniques for verification of concurrent systems. We present several novel POR methods for SMC of concurrent programs under various models of semantics, some of which account for write-buffering mechanisms. Additionally, we present novel algorithms for symbolic model checking of finite-state concurrent systems, where the desired property of the systems is to ensure a formally defined notion of fairness
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
Model checking learning agent systems using Promela with embedded C code and abstraction
As autonomous systems become more prevalent, methods for their verification will become more
widely used. Model checking is a formal verification technique that can help ensure the safety of autonomous
systems, but in most cases it cannot be applied by novices, or in its straight \off-the-shelf" form. In order
to be more widely applicable it is crucial that more sophisticated techniques are used, and are presented
in a way that is reproducible by engineers and verifiers alike. In this paper we demonstrate in detail two
techniques that are used to increase the power of model checking using the model checker SPIN. The first
of these is the use of embedded C code within Promela specifications, in order to accurately re
ect robot
movement. The second is to use abstraction together with a simulation relation to allow us to verify multiple
environments simultaneously. We apply these techniques to a fairly simple system in which a robot moves
about a fixed circular environment and learns to avoid obstacles. The learning algorithm is inspired by the
way that insects learn to avoid obstacles in response to pain signals received from their antennae. Crucially,
we prove that our abstraction is sound for our example system { a step that is often omitted but is vital if
formal verification is to be widely accepted as a useful and meaningful approach
Bounded Model Checking of State-Space Digital Systems: The Impact of Finite Word-Length Effects on the Implementation of Fixed-Point Digital Controllers Based on State-Space Modeling
The extensive use of digital controllers demands a growing effort to prevent
design errors that appear due to finite-word length (FWL) effects. However,
there is still a gap, regarding verification tools and methodologies to check
implementation aspects of control systems. Thus, the present paper describes an
approach, which employs bounded model checking (BMC) techniques, to verify
fixed-point digital controllers represented by state-space equations. The
experimental results demonstrate the sensitivity of such systems to FWL effects
and the effectiveness of the proposed approach to detect them. To the best of
my knowledge, this is the first contribution tackling formal verification
through BMC of fixed-point state-space digital controllers.Comment: International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering
201
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