95 research outputs found
Language-based Abstractions for Dynamical Systems
Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are the primary means to modelling
dynamical systems in many natural and engineering sciences. The number of
equations required to describe a system with high heterogeneity limits our
capability of effectively performing analyses. This has motivated a large body
of research, across many disciplines, into abstraction techniques that provide
smaller ODE systems while preserving the original dynamics in some appropriate
sense. In this paper we give an overview of a recently proposed
computer-science perspective to this problem, where ODE reduction is recast to
finding an appropriate equivalence relation over ODE variables, akin to
classical models of computation based on labelled transition systems.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2017, arXiv:1707.0366
MultiVeStA: Statistical Model Checking for Discrete Event Simulators
The modeling, analysis and performance evaluation of large-scale systems are difficult tasks. Due to the size and complexity of the considered systems, an approach typically followed by engineers consists in performing simulations of systems models to obtain statistical estimations of quantitative properties. Similarly, a technique used by computer scientists working on quantitative analysis is Statistical Model Checking (SMC), where rigorous mathematical languages (typically logics) are used to express systems properties of interest. Such properties can then be automatically estimated by tools performing simulations of the model at hand. These property specifications languages, often not popular among engineers, provide a formal, compact and elegant way to express systems properties without needing to hard-code them in the model definition. This paper presents MultiVeStA, a statistical analysis tool which can be easily integrated with existing discrete event simulators, enriching them with efficient distributed statistical analysis and SMC capabilities
Statistical analysis of chemical computational systems with MULTIVESTA and ALCHEMIST
The chemical-oriented approach is an emerging paradigm for programming the behaviour of densely distributed and context-aware devices (e.g. in ecosystems of displays tailored to crowd steering, or to obtain profile-based coordinated visualization). Typically, the evolution of such systems cannot be easily predicted, thus making of paramount importance the availability of techniques and tools supporting prior-to-deployment analysis. Exact analysis techniques do not scale well when the complexity of systems grows: as a consequence, approximated techniques based on simulation assumed a relevant role. This work presents a new simulation-based distributed tool addressing the statistical analysis of such a kind of systems, which has been obtained by chaining two existing tools: MultiVeStA and Alchemist. The former is a recently proposed lightweight tool which allows to enrich existing discrete event simulators with distributed statistical analysis capabilities, while the latter is an efficient simulator for chemical-oriented computational systems. The tool is validated against a crowd steering scenario, and insights on the performance are provided by discussing how these scale distributing the analysis tasks on a multi-core architecture
Towards a Maude tool for model checking temporal graph properties
We present our prototypical tool for the verification of graph transformation systems. The major novelty of our tool is that it provides a model checker for temporal graph properties based on counterpart semantics for quantified m-calculi. Our tool can be considered as an instantiation of our approach to counterpart semantics which allows for a neat handling of creation, deletion and merging in systems
with dynamic structure. Our implementation is based on the object-based machinery of Maude, which provides the basics to deal with attributed graphs. Graph transformation
systems are specified with term rewrite rules. The model checker evaluates logical formulae of second-order modal m-calculus in the automatically generated CounterpartModel (a sort of unfolded graph transition system) of the graph transformation system under study. The result of evaluating a formula is a set of assignments for each state, associating node variables to actual nodes
Algebraic models for a second-order modal logic
We propose a predicative modal logic of the second order for expressing properties of the evolution of software systems. Each state of a system is specified as a unary algebra, and our logics allows to formalize the problem of verifying the properties of system evolutions as the checking of the truth of suitable formulas. The level of abstraction guaranteed by the algebraic presentation of system states allows the unification of many proposals in the literature, at the same time obtaining a greater level of expressiveness in terms of system representability.
Due to a different handling of the so-called “trans-world identity”, we consider two alternative semantics for our logic: a “Kripke-like” model and a “Counterpart-like” one. Furthermore, we instantiate our proposal by considering unary algebras representing graphs, thus showing the applicability of our approach to the graph transformation framework
Counterpart semantics for a second-order mu-calculus
We propose a novel approach to the semantics of quantified μ-calculi, considering models where states are algebras; the evolution relation is given by a counterpart relation (a family of partial homomorphisms), allowing for the creation, deletion, and merging of components; and formulas are interpreted over sets of state assignments (families of substitutions, associating formula variables to state components). Our proposal avoids the limitations of existing approaches, usually enforcing restrictions of the evolution relation: the resulting semantics is a streamlined and intuitively appealing one, yet it is general enough to cover most of the alternative proposals we are aware of
Forward and Backward Bisimulations for Chemical Reaction Networks
We present two quantitative behavioral equivalences over species of a
chemical reaction network (CRN) with semantics based on ordinary differential
equations. Forward CRN bisimulation identifies a partition where each
equivalence class represents the exact sum of the concentrations of the species
belonging to that class. Backward CRN bisimulation relates species that have
the identical solutions at all time points when starting from the same initial
conditions. Both notions can be checked using only CRN syntactical information,
i.e., by inspection of the set of reactions. We provide a unified algorithm
that computes the coarsest refinement up to our bisimulations in polynomial
time. Further, we give algorithms to compute quotient CRNs induced by a
bisimulation. As an application, we find significant reductions in a number of
models of biological processes from the literature. In two cases we allow the
analysis of benchmark models which would be otherwise intractable due to their
memory requirements.Comment: Extended version of the CONCUR 2015 pape
Modelling and analyzing adaptive self-assembling strategies with Maude
Building adaptive systems with predictable emergent behavior is a challenging task and it is becoming a critical need. The research community has accepted the challenge by introducing approaches of various nature: from software architectures, to programming paradigms, to analysis techniques. We recently proposed a conceptual framework for adaptation centered around the role of control data. In this paper we show that it can be naturally realized in a reflective logical language like Maude by using the Reflective Russian Dolls model. Moreover, we exploit this model to specify, validate and analyse a prominent example of adaptive system: robot swarms equipped with self-assembly strategies. The analysis exploits the statistical model checker PVeStA
Adaptation is a Game
Control data variants of game models such as Interface Automata are suitable for the design and analysis of self-adaptive systems
A Conceptual Framework for Adapation
We present a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation. We called it CODA, for COntrol Data Adaptation, since it is based on the notion of control data. CODA promotes a neat separation between application and adaptation logic through a clear identification of the set of data that is relevant for the latter. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey a representative set of approaches to adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models and architectural solutions
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