Our growing dependence on increasingly complex computer and software systems necessitates the development of formalisms, techniques, and tools for assessing functional properties of these systems. One such technique that has emerged in the last twenty years is model checking, which systematically (and automatically) checks whether a model of a given system satisfies a desired property such as deadlock freedom, invariants, and request-response properties. This automated technique for verification and debugging has developed into a mature and widely used approach with many applications. Principles of Model Checking offers a comprehensive introduction to model checking that is not only a text suitable for classroom use but also a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the field. The book begins with the basic principles for modeling concurrent and communicating systems, introduces different classes of properties (including safety and liveness), presents the notion of fairness, and provides automata-based algorithms for these properties. It introduces the temporal logics LTL and CTL, compares them, and covers algorithms for verifying these logics, discussing real-time systems as well as systems subject to random phenomena. Separate chapters treat such efficiency-improving techniques as abstraction and symbolic manipulation. The book includes an extensive set of examples (most of which run through several chapters) and a complete set of basic results accompanied by detailed proofs. Each chapter concludes with a summary, bibliographic notes, and an extensive list of exercises of both practical and theoretical nature.

/pdf/principles-of-model-checking-249iimickz.pdf

Principles of Model Checking

This paper presents the overal structure, the design criteria, and the main features of the tool box Uppaal. It gives a detailed user guide which describes how to use the various tools of Uppaal version 2.02 to construct abstract models of a real-time system, to simulate its dynamical behavior, to specify and verify its safety and bounded liveness properties in terms of its model. In addition, the paper also provides a short review on case-studies where Uppaal is applied, as well as references to its theoretical foundation.

UPPAAL in a Nutshell

https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~alur/TCS95.pdf

The algorithmic analysis of hybrid systems

We summarize several recent results about hybrid automata. Our goal is to demonstrate that concepts from the theory of discrete concurrent systems can give insights into partly continuous systems, and that methods for the verification of finite-state systems can be used to analyze certain systems with uncountable state spaces.

The theory of hybrid automata

In this paper, we propose a method for the automatic construction of an abstract state graph of an arbitrary system using the Pvs theorem prover.

/pdf/construction-of-abstract-state-graphs-with-pvs-1t340arenf.pdf

Construction of Abstract State Graphs with PVS

Both approaches presented in this paper considerably improve Kronos performance and functionalities.

The tool KRONOS

Kronos is a software tool aiming at assisting designers of real-time systems to develop projects meeting the specified requirements.

/pdf/kronos-a-model-checking-tool-for-real-time-systems-4k7kwlexy8.pdf

Kronos: A Model-Checking Tool for Real-Time Systems

An Approach to the Description and Analysis of Hybrid Systems

ET-LOTOS is a timed extension of LOTOS proposed for modeling real-time systems. KRONOS is a tool that checks whether an automaton extended with clocks (called timed automaton) satisfies a real-time requirement expressed as a formula of the logic TCTL. This paper shows that real-time systems described in a reasonable subset of ET-LOTOS can be verified with KRONOS by compiling them into timed automata. We illustrate the practical interest of our approach with a case study: the Tick-Tock protocol.

Alfredo Olivero

Papers

The algorithmic analysis of hybrid systems

The tool KRONOS

Kronos: A Model-Checking Tool for Real-Time Systems

An Approach to the Description and Analysis of Hybrid Systems

Verifying ET-LOTOS programmes with KRONOS