36,243 research outputs found
A synthesis of logic and bio-inspired techniques in the design of dependable systems
Much of the development of model-based design and dependability analysis in the design of dependable systems, including software intensive systems, can be attributed to the application of advances in formal logic and its application to fault forecasting and verification of systems. In parallel, work on bio-inspired technologies has shown potential for the evolutionary design of engineering systems via automated exploration of potentially large design spaces. We have not yet seen the emergence of a design paradigm that effectively combines these two techniques, schematically founded on the two pillars of formal logic and biology, from the early stages of, and throughout, the design lifecycle. Such a design paradigm would apply these techniques synergistically and systematically to enable optimal refinement of new designs which can be driven effectively by dependability requirements. The paper sketches such a model-centric paradigm for the design of dependable systems, presented in the scope of the HiP-HOPS tool and technique, that brings these technologies together to realise their combined potential benefits. The paper begins by identifying current challenges in model-based safety assessment and then overviews the use of meta-heuristics at various stages of the design lifecycle covering topics that span from allocation of dependability requirements, through dependability analysis, to multi-objective optimisation of system architectures and maintenance schedules
Synthesis of Switching Protocols from Temporal Logic Specifications
We propose formal means for synthesizing switching protocols that determine the sequence in which the modes of a switched system are activated to satisfy certain high-level specifications in linear temporal logic. The synthesized protocols are robust against exogenous disturbances on the continuous dynamics. Two types of finite transition systems, namely under- and over-approximations, that abstract the behavior of the underlying continuous dynamics are defined. In particular, we show that the discrete synthesis problem for an under-approximation can be formulated as a model checking problem, whereas that for an over-approximation can be transformed into a two-player game. Both of these formulations are amenable to efficient, off-the-shelf software tools. By construction, existence of a discrete switching strategy for the discrete synthesis problem guarantees the existence of a continuous switching protocol for the continuous synthesis problem, which can be implemented at the continuous level to ensure the correctness of the nonlinear switched system. Moreover, the proposed framework can be straightforwardly extended to accommodate specifications that require reacting to possibly adversarial external events. Finally, these results are illustrated using three examples from different application domains
Discounting in LTL
In recent years, there is growing need and interest in formalizing and
reasoning about the quality of software and hardware systems. As opposed to
traditional verification, where one handles the question of whether a system
satisfies, or not, a given specification, reasoning about quality addresses the
question of \emph{how well} the system satisfies the specification. One
direction in this effort is to refine the "eventually" operators of temporal
logic to {\em discounting operators}: the satisfaction value of a specification
is a value in , where the longer it takes to fulfill eventuality
requirements, the smaller the satisfaction value is.
In this paper we introduce an augmentation by discounting of Linear Temporal
Logic (LTL), and study it, as well as its combination with propositional
quality operators. We show that one can augment LTL with an arbitrary set of
discounting functions, while preserving the decidability of the model-checking
problem. Further augmenting the logic with unary propositional quality
operators preserves decidability, whereas adding an average-operator makes some
problems undecidable. We also discuss the complexity of the problem, as well as
various extensions
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