355 research outputs found
A Metric Encoding for Bounded Model Checking (extended version)
In Bounded Model Checking both the system model and the checked property are
translated into a Boolean formula to be analyzed by a SAT-solver. We introduce
a new encoding technique which is particularly optimized for managing
quantitative future and past metric temporal operators, typically found in
properties of hard real time systems. The encoding is simple and intuitive in
principle, but it is made more complex by the presence, typical of the Bounded
Model Checking technique, of backward and forward loops used to represent an
ultimately periodic infinite domain by a finite structure. We report and
comment on the new encoding technique and on an extensive set of experiments
carried out to assess its feasibility and effectiveness
Validating the hybrid ERTMS/ETCS level 3 concept with electrum
This paper reports on the development of a formal model for the Hybrid ERTMS/ETCS Level 3 concept in Electrum, a lightweight formal specification language that extends Alloy with mutable relations and temporal logic operators. We show how Electrum and its Analyzer can be used to perform scenario exploration to validate this model, namely to check that all the example operational scenarios described in the reference document are admissible, and to reason about expected safety properties, which can be easily specified and model checked for arbitrary track configurations. The Analyzer depicts scenarios (and counter-examples) in a graphical notation that is logic-agnostic, making them understandable for stakeholders without expertise in formal specification.- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016826); ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agenc
Automated Benchmarking of Incremental SAT and QBF Solvers
Incremental SAT and QBF solving potentially yields improvements when
sequences of related formulas are solved. An incremental application is usually
tailored towards some specific solver and decomposes a problem into incremental
solver calls. This hinders the independent comparison of different solvers,
particularly when the application program is not available. As a remedy, we
present an approach to automated benchmarking of incremental SAT and QBF
solvers. Given a collection of formulas in (Q)DIMACS format generated
incrementally by an application program, our approach automatically translates
the formulas into instructions to import and solve a formula by an incremental
SAT/QBF solver. The result of the translation is a program which replays the
incremental solver calls and thus allows to evaluate incremental solvers
independently from the application program. We illustrate our approach by
different hardware verification problems for SAT and QBF solvers.Comment: camera-ready version (8 pages + 2 pages appendix), to appear in the
proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Logic for Programming,
Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning (LPAR), LNCS, Springer, 201
Bounded model checking of temporal formulas with alloy
Alloy is formal modeling language based on first-order relational logic, with no specific support for specifying reactive systems. We propose the usage of temporal logic to specify such systems, and show how bounded model checking can be performed with the Alloy Analyzer
Towards Personalized Prostate Cancer Therapy Using Delta-Reachability Analysis
Recent clinical studies suggest that the efficacy of hormone therapy for
prostate cancer depends on the characteristics of individual patients. In this
paper, we develop a computational framework for identifying patient-specific
androgen ablation therapy schedules for postponing the potential cancer
relapse. We model the population dynamics of heterogeneous prostate cancer
cells in response to androgen suppression as a nonlinear hybrid automaton. We
estimate personalized kinetic parameters to characterize patients and employ
-reachability analysis to predict patient-specific therapeutic
strategies. The results show that our methods are promising and may lead to a
prognostic tool for personalized cancer therapy.Comment: HSCC 201
Bounded Determinization of Timed Automata with Silent Transitions
Deterministic timed automata are strictly less expressive than their
non-deterministic counterparts, which are again less expressive than those with
silent transitions. As a consequence, timed automata are in general
non-determinizable. This is unfortunate since deterministic automata play a
major role in model-based testing, observability and implementability. However,
by bounding the length of the traces in the automaton, effective
determinization becomes possible. We propose a novel procedure for bounded
determinization of timed automata. The procedure unfolds the automata to
bounded trees, removes all silent transitions and determinizes via disjunction
of guards. The proposed algorithms are optimized to the bounded setting and
thus are more efficient and can handle a larger class of timed automata than
the general algorithms. The approach is implemented in a prototype tool and
evaluated on several examples. To our best knowledge, this is the first
implementation of this type of procedure for timed automata.Comment: 25 page
On QBF Proofs and Preprocessing
QBFs (quantified boolean formulas), which are a superset of propositional
formulas, provide a canonical representation for PSPACE problems. To overcome
the inherent complexity of QBF, significant effort has been invested in
developing QBF solvers as well as the underlying proof systems. At the same
time, formula preprocessing is crucial for the application of QBF solvers. This
paper focuses on a missing link in currently-available technology: How to
obtain a certificate (e.g. proof) for a formula that had been preprocessed
before it was given to a solver? The paper targets a suite of commonly-used
preprocessing techniques and shows how to reconstruct certificates for them. On
the negative side, the paper discusses certain limitations of the
currently-used proof systems in the light of preprocessing. The presented
techniques were implemented and evaluated in the state-of-the-art QBF
preprocessor bloqqer.Comment: LPAR 201
Automatic Abstraction in SMT-Based Unbounded Software Model Checking
Software model checkers based on under-approximations and SMT solvers are
very successful at verifying safety (i.e. reachability) properties. They
combine two key ideas -- (a) "concreteness": a counterexample in an
under-approximation is a counterexample in the original program as well, and
(b) "generalization": a proof of safety of an under-approximation, produced by
an SMT solver, are generalizable to proofs of safety of the original program.
In this paper, we present a combination of "automatic abstraction" with the
under-approximation-driven framework. We explore two iterative approaches for
obtaining and refining abstractions -- "proof based" and "counterexample based"
-- and show how they can be combined into a unified algorithm. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first application of Proof-Based Abstraction,
primarily used to verify hardware, to Software Verification. We have
implemented a prototype of the framework using Z3, and evaluate it on many
benchmarks from the Software Verification Competition. We show experimentally
that our combination is quite effective on hard instances.Comment: Extended version of a paper in the proceedings of CAV 201
Incrementally Computing Minimal Unsatisfiable Cores of QBFs via a Clause Group Solver API
We consider the incremental computation of minimal unsatisfiable cores (MUCs)
of QBFs. To this end, we equipped our incremental QBF solver DepQBF with a
novel API to allow for incremental solving based on clause groups. A clause
group is a set of clauses which is incrementally added to or removed from a
previously solved QBF. Our implementation of the novel API is related to
incremental SAT solving based on selector variables and assumptions. However,
the API entirely hides selector variables and assumptions from the user, which
facilitates the integration of DepQBF in other tools. We present implementation
details and, for the first time, report on experiments related to the
computation of MUCs of QBFs using DepQBF's novel clause group API.Comment: (fixed typo), camera-ready version, 6-page tool paper, to appear in
proceedings of SAT 2015, LNCS, Springe
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