Distributed cyber-physical systems (DCPS) are pervasive in areas such as
aeronautics and ground transportation systems, including the case of
distributed hybrid systems. DCPS design and verification is quite challenging
because of asynchronous communication, network delays, and clock skews.
Furthermore, their model checking verification typically becomes unfeasible due
to the huge state space explosion caused by the system's concurrency. The PALS
("physically asynchronous, logically synchronous") methodology has been
proposed to reduce the design and verification of a DCPS to the much simpler
task of designing and verifying its underlying synchronous version. The
original PALS methodology assumes a single logical period, but Multirate PALS
extends it to deal with multirate DCPS in which components may operate with
different logical periods. This paper shows how Multirate PALS can be applied
to formally verify a nontrivial multirate DCPS. We use Real-Time Maude to
formally specify a multirate distributed hybrid system consisting of an
airplane maneuvered by a pilot who turns the airplane according to a specified
angle through a distributed control system. Our formal analysis revealed that
the original design was ineffective in achieving a smooth turning maneuver, and
led to a redesign of the system that satisfies the desired correctness
properties. This shows that the Multirate PALS methodology is not only
effective for formal DCPS verification, but can also be used effectively in the
DCPS design process, even before properties are verified.Comment: In Proceedings FTSCS 2012, arXiv:1212.657