Temporal Stream Logic: Synthesis beyond the Bools

Reactive systems that operate in environments with complex data, such as mobile apps or embedded controllers with many sensors, are difficult to synthesize. Synthesis tools usually fail for such systems because the state space resulting from the discretization of the data is too large. We introduce TSL, a new temporal logic that separates control and data. We provide a CEGAR-based synthesis approach for the construction of implementations that are guaranteed to satisfy a TSL specification for all possible instantiations of the data processing functions. TSL provides an attractive trade-off for synthesis. On the one hand, synthesis from TSL, unlike synthesis from standard temporal logics, is undecidable in general. On the other hand, however, synthesis from TSL is scalable, because it is independent of the complexity of the handled data. Among other benchmarks, we have successfully synthesized a music player Android app and a controller for an autonomous vehicle in the Open Race Car Simulator (TORCS.

Research into the development of a knowledge acquisition taxonomy

The focus of the research was on the development of a problem solving taxonomy that can support and direct the knowledge engineering process during the development of an intelligent tutoring system. The results of the research are necessarily general. Being only a small initial attempt at a fundamental problem in artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology, the process has had to be bootstrapped and the results can only provide pointers to further, more formal research designs

Операционная семантика аннотированных Reflex программ

Reflex is a process-oriented language that provides a design of easy-to-maintain control software for programmable logic controllers. The language has been successfully used in a several reliability critical control systems, e. g. control software for a silicon single crystal growth furnace and electronic equipment control system. Currently, the main goal of the Reflex language project is to develop formal verification methods for Reflex programs in order to guarantee increased reliability of the software created on its basis. The paper presents the formal operational semantics of Reflex programs extended by annotations describing the formal specification of software requirements as a necessary basis for the application of such methods. A brief overview of the Reflex language is given and a simple example of its use – a control program for a hand dryer – is provided. The concepts of environment and variables shared with the environment are defined that allows to disengage from specific input/output ports. Types of annotations that specify restrictions on the values of the variables at program launch, restrictions on the environment (in particular, on the control object), invariants of the control cycle, pre- and postconditions of external functions used in Reflex programs are defined. Annotated Reflex also uses standard annotations assume, assert and havoc. The operational semantics of the annotated Reflex programs uses the global clock as well as the local clocks of separate processes, the time of which is measured in the number of iterations of the control cycle, to simulate time constraints on the execution of processes at certain states. It stores a complete history of changes of the values of shared variables for a more precise description of the time properties of the program and its environment. Semantics takes into account the infinity of the program execution cycle, the logic of process transition management from state to state and the interaction of processes with each other and with the environment. Extending the formal operational semantics of the Reflex language to annotations simplifies the proof of the correctness of the transformation approach to deductive verification of Reflex programs developed by the authors, transforming an annotated Reflex program to an annotated program in a very limited subset of the C language, by reducing a complex proof of preserving the truth of program requirements during the transformation to a simpler proof of equivalence of the original and the resulting annotated programs with respect to their operational semantics.Reflex — процесс-ориентированный язык, который обеспечивает разработку простого в обслуживании управляющего программного обеспечения для программируемых логических контроллеров. Язык был успешно использован в нескольких системах управления с повышенными требованиями к надежности, например, в системе управления печью для выращивания монокристаллов кремния и в комплексе контроля радиоэлектронной аппаратуры. В настоящее время основной целью языкового проекта Reflex является разработка методов формальной верификации для Reflex программ для того, чтобы гарантировать повышенную надежность создаваемого на его основе программного обеспечения. В статье представлена формальная операционная семантика Reflex программ, расширенных аннотациями, описывающими формальную спецификацию программных требований, как необходимый базис для применения таких методов. Дан краткий обзор языка Reflex и приведен простой пример его использования — управляющая программа для сушилки рук. Определены понятия окружения и переменных, разделяемых с окружением, позволяющие абстрагироваться от конкретных портов ввода/вывода. Определены типы аннотаций, задающие ограничения на значения переменных при запуске программы, ограничения на окружение (в частности, на объект управления), инварианты цикла управления, пред- и постусловия внешних функций, используемых в Reflex программах. Аннотированный Reflex также использует стандартные аннотации assume, assert и havoc. Операционная семантика аннотированных Reflex программ использует глобальные часы и локальные часы отдельных процессов, время которых измеряется в количестве итераций цикла управления, для моделирования временных ограничений на исполнение процессов в определенных состояниях. Она хранит полную историю изменений значений разделяемых переменных для более полного описания временных свойств программы и ее окружения. Семантика учитывает бесконечность цикла выполнения программы, логику управления переходами процессов из состояния в состояние и взаимодействие процессов между собой и с окружением. Расширение формальной операционной семантики языка Reflex на аннотации упрощает доказательство корректности разрабатываемого авторами трансформационного подхода к дедуктивной верификации Reflex программ, трансформирующего аннотированную Reflex программу к аннотированной программе на сильно ограниченном подмножестве языка C, за счет сведения сложного доказательства сохранения истинности требований к программе при трансформации к более простому доказательству эквивалентности исходной и результирующей аннотированных программ относительно их операционных семантик

Centre for Information Science Research Annual Report, 1987-1991

Annual reports from various departments of the AN

A risk-aware architecture for resilient spacecraft operations

In this paper we discuss a resilient, risk-aware software architecture for onboard, real-time autonomous operations that is intended to robustly handle uncertainty in space-craft behavior within hazardous and unconstrained environments, without unnecessarily increasing complexity. This architecture, the Resilient Spacecraft Executive (RSE), serves three main functions: (1) adapting to component failures to allow graceful degradation, (2) accommodating environments, science observations, and spacecraft capabilities that are not fully known in advance, and (3) making risk-aware decisions without waiting for slow ground-based reactions. This RSE is made up of four main parts: deliberative, habitual, and reflexive layers, and a state estimator that interfaces with all three. We use a risk-aware goal-directed executive within the deliberative layer to perform risk-informed planning, to satisfy the mission goals (specified by mission control) within the specified priorities and constraints. Other state-of-the-art algorithms to be integrated into the RSE include correct-by-construction control synthesis and model-based estimation and diagnosis. We demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture in a simple implementation of the RSE for a simulated Mars rover scenario

The Application of Problem-Centered Interview as a Method of Pedagogical Research

The purpose of the article is to present the qualitative research method known as Problem-Centered Interview and its potential application in pedagogical research. The author demonstrates the main assumptions and stages of the method, simultaneously analyzing the possible benefits and limitations of its use. The originality of the method is confronted with other types of interviews, i.e.: active, in-depth and classical narrative interview. The application of unique qualities of the method,such as: administering three types of reasoning (deductive, inductive and abductive), addressing the prior knowledge bias of the researcher and taking into account afalsification in the validation process, all of which increase the credibility of research conclusions. The Problem-Centered Interview which is placed between the objectivist Grounded Theory and constructionism is able to provide a new insight into education and upbringing. The application of the method makes it possible for the research itself to become an educational situation.The purpose of the article is to present the qualitative research method known as Problem-Centered Interview and its potential application in pedagogical research. The author demonstrates the main assumptions and stages of the method, simultaneously analyzing the possible benefits and limitations of its use. The originality of the method is confronted with other types of interviews, i.e.: active, in-depth and classical narrative interview. The application of unique qualities of the method,such as: administering three types of reasoning (deductive, inductive and abductive), addressing the prior knowledge bias of the researcher and taking into account afalsification in the validation process, all of which increase the credibility of research conclusions. The Problem-Centered Interview which is placed between the objectivist Grounded Theory and constructionism is able to provide a new insight into education and upbringing. The application of the method makes it possible for the research itself to become an educational situation

Practopoiesis: Or how life fosters a mind

The mind is a biological phenomenon. Thus, biological principles of organization should also be the principles underlying mental operations. Practopoiesis states that the key for achieving intelligence through adaptation is an arrangement in which mechanisms laying a lower level of organization, by their operations and interaction with the environment, enable creation of mechanisms lying at a higher level of organization. When such an organizational advance of a system occurs, it is called a traverse. A case of traverse is when plasticity mechanisms (at a lower level of organization), by their operations, create a neural network anatomy (at a higher level of organization). Another case is the actual production of behavior by that network, whereby the mechanisms of neuronal activity operate to create motor actions. Practopoietic theory explains why the adaptability of a system increases with each increase in the number of traverses. With a larger number of traverses, a system can be relatively small and yet, produce a higher degree of adaptive/intelligent behavior than a system with a lower number of traverses. The present analyses indicate that the two well-known traverses-neural plasticity and neural activity-are not sufficient to explain human mental capabilities. At least one additional traverse is needed, which is named anapoiesis for its contribution in reconstructing knowledge e.g., from long-term memory into working memory. The conclusions bear implications for brain theory, the mind-body explanatory gap, and developments of artificial intelligence technologies.Comment: Revised version in response to reviewer comment

Protocol-based verification of message-passing parallel programs

© 2015 ACM.We present ParTypes, a type-based methodology for the verification of Message Passing Interface (MPI) programs written in the C programming language. The aim is to statically verify programs against protocol specifications, enforcing properties such as fidelity and absence of deadlocks. We develop a protocol language based on a dependent type system for message-passing parallel programs, which includes various communication operators, such as point-to-point messages, broadcast, reduce, array scatter and gather. For the verification of a program against a given protocol, the protocol is first translated into a representation read by VCC, a software verifier for C. We successfully verified several MPI programs in a running time that is independent of the number of processes or other input parameters. This contrasts with alternative techniques, notably model checking and runtime verification, that suffer from the state-explosion problem or that otherwise depend on parameters to the program itself. We experimentally evaluated our approach against state-of-the-art tools for MPI to conclude that our approach offers a scalable solution

FOAL 2004 Proceedings: Foundations of Aspect-Oriented Languages Workshop at AOSD 2004

Aspect-oriented programming is a paradigm in software engineering and FOAL logos courtesy of Luca Cardelli programming languages that promises better support for separation of concerns. The third Foundations of Aspect-Oriented Languages (FOAL) workshop was held at the Third International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development in Lancaster, UK, on March 23, 2004. This workshop was designed to be a forum for research in formal foundations of aspect-oriented programming languages. The call for papers announced the areas of interest for FOAL as including, but not limited to: semantics of aspect-oriented languages, specification and verification for such languages, type systems, static analysis, theory of testing, theory of aspect composition, and theory of aspect translation (compilation) and rewriting. The call for papers welcomed all theoretical and foundational studies of foundations of aspect-oriented languages. The goals of this FOAL workshop were to: � Make progress on the foundations of aspect-oriented programming languages. � Exchange ideas about semantics and formal methods for aspect-oriented programming languages. � Foster interest within the programming language theory and types communities in aspect-oriented programming languages. � Foster interest within the formal methods community in aspect-oriented programming and the problems of reasoning about aspect-oriented programs. The papers at the workshop, which are included in the proceedings, were selected frompapers submitted by researchers worldwide. Due to time limitations at the workshop, not all of the submitted papers were selected for presentation. FOAL also welcomed an invited talk by James Riely (DePaul University), the abstract of which is included below. The workshop was organized by Gary T. Leavens (Iowa State University), Ralf L?ammel (CWI and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), and Curtis Clifton (Iowa State University). The program committee was chaired by L?ammel and included L?ammel, Leavens, Clifton, Lodewijk Bergmans (University of Twente), John Tang Boyland (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee), William R. Cook (University of Texas at Austin), Tzilla Elrad (Illinois Institute of Technology), Kathleen Fisher (AT&T Labs�Research), Radha Jagadeesan (DePaul University), Shmuel Katz (Technion�Israel Institute of Technology), Shriram Krishnamurthi (Brown University), Mira Mezini (Darmstadt University of Technology), Todd Millstein (University of California, Los Angeles), Benjamin C. Pierce (University of Pennsylvania), Henny Sipma (Stanford University), Mario S?udholt ( ?Ecole des Mines de Nantes), and David Walker (Princeton University). We thank the organizers of AOSD 2004 for hosting the workshop