Showing papers by "Jean-François Raskin published in 2006"

Antichains: a new algorithm for checking universality of finite automata

Abstract: We propose and evaluate a new algorithm for checking the universality of nondeterministic finite automata. In contrast to the standard algorithm, which uses the subset construction to explicitly determinize the automaton, we keep the determinization step implicit. Our algorithm computes the least fixed point of a monotone function on the lattice of antichains of state sets. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm experimentally using the random automaton model recently proposed by Tabakov and Vardi. We show that on the difficult instances of this probabilistic model, the antichain algorithm outperforms the standard one by several orders of magnitude. We also show how variations of the antichain method can be used for solving the language-inclusion problem for nondeterministic finite automata, and the emptiness problem for alternating finite automata.

Antichains: A new algorithm for checking universality of finite automata

Abstract: We propose and evaluate a new algorithm for checking the universality of nondeterministic finite automata. In contrast to the standard algorithm, which uses the subset construction to explicitly determinize the automaton, we keep the determinization step implicit. Our algorithm computes the least fixed point of a monotone function on the lattice of antichains of state sets. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm experimentally using the random automaton model recently proposed by Tabakov and Vardi. We show that on the difficult instances of this probabilistic model, the antichain algorithm outperforms the standard one by several orders of magnitude. We also show how variations of the antichain method can be used for solving the language-inclusion problem for nondeterministic finite automata, and the emptiness problem for alternating finite automata.

Algorithms for omega-regular games with imperfect information

Abstract: We study observation-based strategies for two-player turn-based games on graphs with omega-regular objectives. An observation-based strategy relies on imperfect information about the history of a play, namely, on the past sequence of observations. Such games occur in the synthesis of a controller that does not see the private state of the plant. Our main results are twofold. First, we give a fixed-point algorithm for computing the set of states from which a player can win with a deterministic observation-based strategy for any omega-regular objective. The fixed point is computed in the lattice of antichains of state sets. This algorithm has the advantages of being directed by the objective and of avoiding an explicit subset construction on the game graph. Second, we give an algorithm for computing the set of states from which a player can win with probability 1 with a randomized observation-based strategy for a Buchi objective. This set is of interest because in the absence of perfect information, randomized strategies are more powerful than deterministic ones. We show that our algorithms are optimal by proving matching lower bounds.

A lattice theory for solving games of imperfect information

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a fixed point theory to solve games of imperfect information. The fixed point theory is defined on the lattice of antichains of sets of states. Contrary to the classical solution proposed by Reif [Rei84], our new solution does not involve determinization. As a consequence, it is readily applicable to classes of systems that do not admit determinization. Notable examples of such systems are timed and hybrid automata. As an application, we show that the discrete control problem for games of imperfect information defined by rectangular automata is decidable. This result extends a result by Henzinger and Kopke in [HK99].

A complete abstract interpretation framework for coverability properties of WSTS

Abstract: We present an abstract interpretation based approach to solve the coverability problem of well-structured transition systems Our approach distinguishes from other attempts in that (1) we solve this problem for the whole class of well-structured transition systems using a forward algorithm So, our algorithm has to deal with possibly infinite downward closed sets (2) Whereas other approaches have a non generic representation for downward closed sets of states, which turns out to be hard to devise in practice, we introduce a generic representation requiring no additional effort of implementation

On the optimal reachability problem

Abstract: We study the cost-optimal reachability problem for weighted timed automata such that positive and negative costs are allowed on edges and locations. By optimality, we mean an infimum cost as well as a supremum cost. We show that this problem is PSPACE-COMPLETE. Our proof uses techniques of linear programming, and thus exploits an important property of optimal runs : their time-transitions use a time τ which is arbitrarily closed to an integer. We then propose an extension of the region graph, the weighted discrete graph, whose structure gives light on the way to solve the cost-optimal reachability problem. We also give an application of the cost-optimal reachability problem in the context of timed games.

Model checking restricted sets of timed paths

Abstract: In this paper, we study the complexity of model-checking formulas of four important real-time logics (TPTL, MTL, MITL, and TCTL) over restricted sets of timed paths. The classes of restricted sets of timed paths that we consider are (i) a single finite (or ultimately periodic) timed path, (ii) an infinite set of finite (or infinite) timed paths defined by a finite (or ultimately periodic) path in a region graph, (iii) an infinite set of finite (or infinite) timed paths defined by a finite (or ultimately periodic) path in a zone graph.Several results are quite negative: TPTL and MTL remain undecidable along region-and zone-paths. On the other hand, we obtained PTIME algorithms for model-checking TCTL along a region path, and for MTL along a single timed path.

On model-checking timed automata with stopwatch observers

Abstract: In this paper, we study the model-checking problem for weighted timed automata and the weighted CTL logic; we also study the finiteness of bisimulations of weighted timed automata. Weighted timed automata are timed automata extended with costs on both edges and locations. When the costs act as stopwatches, we get stopwatch automata with the restriction that the stopwatches cannot be reset nor tested. The weighted CTL logic is an extension of TCTL that allows to reset and test the cost variables. Our main results are: (i) the undecidability of the proposed model-checking problem for discrete and dense time in general, (ii) its PSpace-Completeness in the discrete case, and its undecidability in the dense case, for a slight restriction of the weighted CTL Logic, (iii) the precise frontier between finite and infinite bisimulations in the dense case for the subclass of stopwatch automata.

On the symbolic computation of the hardest configurations of the RUSH HOUR game

Abstract: RUSH HOUR is a sliding blocks game where blocks represent cars stuck in a traffic jam on a 6 × 6 board The goal of the game is to allow one of the cars (the target car) to exit this traffic jam by moving the other cars out of its way In this paper, we study the problem of finding difficult initial configurations for this game An initial configuration is difficult if the number of car moves necessary to exit the target car is high To solve the problem, we model the game in propositional logic and we apply symbolic model-checking techniques to study the huge graph of configurations that underlies the game On the positive side, we show that this huge graph (containing 36 ċ 1010 vertices) can be completely analyzed using symbolic model-checking techniques with reasonable computing resources We have classified every possible initial configuration of the game according to the length of its shortest solution On the negative side, we prove a general theorem that shows some limits of symbolic model-checking methods for board games The result explains why some natural modeling of board games leads to the explosion of the size of symbolic data-structures

From timed models to timed implementations

Abstract: Computer Science is currently facing a grand challenge : finding good design practices for embedded systems. Embedded systems are essentially computers interacting with some physical process. You could find one in a braking systems or in a nuclear power plant for example. They present several design difficulties : first they are reactive systems, interacting indefinitely with their environment. Second,they must satisfy real-time constraints specifying when they should respond, and not only how. Finally, their environment is often deeply continuous, presenting complex dynamics. The formal models of choice for specifying such systems are timed and hybrid automata for which model checking is pretty well studied. In a first part of this thesis, we study a complete design approach, including verification and code generation, for timed automata. We have to define a new semantics for timed automata, the AASAP semantics, that preserves the decidability properties for model checking and at the same time is implementable. Our notion of implementability is completely novel, and relies on the simulation of a semantics that is obviously implementable on a real platform. We wrote tools for the analysis and code generation and exemplify them on a case study about the well known Philips Audio Control Protocol. In a second part of this thesis, we study the problem of controller synthesis for an environment specified as a hybrid automaton. We give a new solution for discrete controllers having only an imperfect information about the state of the system. In the process, we defined a new algorithm, based on the monotonicity of the controllable predecessors operator, for efficiently finding a controller and we show some promising applications on a classical problem : the universality test for finite automata.

A lattice theory for solving games of imperfect information

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a fixed point theory to solve games of imperfect information. The fixed point theory is defined on the lattice of antichains of sets of states. Contrary to the classical solution proposed by Reif [Rei84], our new solution does not involve determinization. As a consequence, it is readily applicable to classes of systems that do not admit determinization. Notable examples of such systems are timed and hybrid automata. As an application, we show that the discrete control problem for games of imperfect information defined by rectangular automata is decidable. This result extends a result by Henzinger and Kopke in [HK99].

Algorithmic analysis of complex semantics for timed and hybrid automata

Abstract: In the field of formal verification of real-time systems, major developments have been recorded in the last fifteen years. It is about logics, automata, process algebra, programming languages, etc. From the beginning, a formalism has played an important role: timed automata and their natural extension,hybrid automata. Those models allow the definition of real-time constraints using real-valued clocks, or more generally analog variables whose evolution is governed by differential equations. They generalize finite automata in that their semantics defines timed words where each symbol is associated with an occurrence timestamp.The decidability and algorithmic analysis of timed and hybrid automata have been intensively studied in the literature. The central result for timed automata is that they are positively decidable. This is not the case for hybrid automata, but semi-algorithmic methods are known when the dynamics is relatively simple, namely a linear relation between the derivatives of the variables.With the increasing complexity of nowadays systems, those models are however limited in their classical semantics, for modelling realistic implementations or dynamical systems.In this thesis, we study the algorithmics of complex semantics for timed and hybrid automata.On the one hand, we propose implementable semantics for timed automata and we study their computational properties: by contrast with other works, we identify a semantics that is implementable and that has decidable properties. On the other hand, we give new algorithmic approaches to the analysis of hybrid automata whose dynamics is given by an affine function of its variables.