We describe a method for reducing the complexity of temporal logic model checking in systems composed of many parallel processes. The goal is to check properties of the components of a system and then deduce global properties from these local properties. The main difficulty with this type of approach is that local properties are often not preserved at the global level. We present a general framework for using additional interface processes to model the environment for a component. These interface processes are typically much simpler than the full environment of the component. By composing a component with its interface processes and then checking properties of this composition, we can guarantee that these properties will be preserved at the global level. We give two example compositional systems based on the logic CTL*.

Model checking is emerging as a practical tool for automated debugging of complex reactive systems such as embedded controllers and network protocols (see [23] for a survey). Traditional techniques for model checking do not admit an explicit modeling of time, and are thus, unsuitable for analysis of real-time systems whose correctness depends on relative magnitudes of different delays. Consequently, timed automata [7] were introduced as a formal notation to model the behavior of real-time systems. Its definition provides a simple way to annotate state-transition graphs with timing constraints using finitely many real-valued clock variables. Automated analysis of timed automata relies on the construction of a finite quotient of the infinite space of clock valuations. Over the years, the formalism has been extensively studied leading to many results establishing connections to circuits and logic, and much progress has been made in developing verification algorithms, heuristics, and tools. This paper provides a survey of the theory of timed automata, and their role in specification and verification of real-time systems.

We give an efficient procedure for verifying that a finite-state concurrent system meets a specification expressed in a (propositional, branching-time) temporal logic. Our algorithm has complexity linear in both the size of the specification and the size of the global state graph for the concurrent system. We also show how this approach can be adapted to handle fairness. We argue that our technique can provide a practical alternative to manual proof construction or use of a mechanical theorem prover for verifying many finite-state concurrent systems. Experimental results show that state machines with several hundred states can be checked in a matter of seconds.

We give a comprehensive and unifying survey of the theoretical aspects of Temporal and modal logic.

Symbolic Model Checking [3, 14] has proven to be a powerful technique for the verification of reactive systems. BDDs [2] have traditionally been used as a symbolic representation of the system. In this paper we show how boolean decision procedures, like Stalmarck's Method [16] or the Davis & Putnam Procedure [7], can replace BDDs. This new technique avoids the space blow up of BDDs, generates counterexamples much faster, and sometimes speeds up the verification. In addition, it produces counterexamples of minimal length. We introduce a bounded model checking procedure for LTL which reduces model checking to propositional satisfiability. We show that bounded LTL model checking can be done without a tableau construction. We have implemented a model checker BMC, based on bounded model checking, and preliminary results are presented.

We present a general framework for the formal specification and algorithmic analysis of hybrid systems. A hybrid system consists of a discrete program with an analog environment. We model hybrid systems as nite automata equipped with variables that evolve continuously with time according to dynamical laws. For verification purposes, we restrict ourselves to linear hybrid systems, where all variables follow piecewise-linear trajectories. We provide decidability and undecidability results for classes of linear hybrid systems, and we show that standard program-analysis techniques can be adapted to linear hybrid systems. In particular, we consider symbolic model-checking and minimization procedures that are based on the reachability analysis of an infinite state space. The procedures iteratively compute state sets that are definable as unions of convex polyhedra in multidimensional real space. We also present approximation techniques for dealing with systems for which the iterative procedures do not converge.

Agent-oriented techniques represent an exciting new means of analysing, designing and building complex software systems. They have the potential to significantly improve current practice in software engineering and to extend the range of applications that can feasibly be tackled. Yet, to date, there have been few serious attempts to cast agent systems as a software engineering paradigm. This paper seeks to rectify this omission. Specifically, it will be argued that: (i) the conceptual apparatus of agent-oriented systems is well-suited to building software solutions for complex systems and (ii) agent-oriented approaches represent a genuine advance over the current state of the art for engineering complex systems. Following on from this view, the major issues raised by adopting an agent-oriented approach to software engineering are highlighted and discussed. 1.

Temporal logic comes in two varieties: linear-time temporal logic assumes implicit universal quantification over all paths that are generated by system moves; branching-time temporal logic allows explicit existential and universal quantification over all paths. We introduce a third, more general variety of temporal logic: alternating-time temporal logic offers selective quantification over those paths that are possible outcomes of games, such as the game in which the system and the environment alternate moves. While linear-time and branching-time logics are natural specification languages for closed systems, alternating-time logics are natural specification languages for open systems. For example, by preceding the temporal operator "eventually" with a selective path quantifier, we can specify that in the game between the system and the environment, the system has a strategy to reach a certain state. Also the problems of receptiveness, realizability, and controllability can be formulated as model-checking problems for alternating-time formulas.

A hybrid system is a dynamical system whose behavior exhibits both discrete and continuous change. A hybrid automaton is a mathematical model for hybrid systems, which combines, in a single formalism, automaton transitions for capturing discrete change with differential equations for capturing continuous change. HyTech is a symbolic model checker for linear hybrid automata, a subclass of hybrid automata that can be analyzed automatically by computing with polyhedral state sets. A key feature of HyTech is its ability to perform parametric analysis, i.e. to determine the values of design parameters for which a linear hybrid automaton satisfies a temporal-logic requirement. 1 Introduction A hybrid system typically consists of a collection of digital programs that interact with each other and with an analog environment. Examples of hybrid systems include manufacturing controllers, automotive and flight controllers, medical equipment, micro-electromechanical systems, and robots. When thes...

Our goal in this paper is to introduce and motivate a methodology, called Tropos, for building agent oriented software systems. Tropos is based on two key ideas. First, the notion of agent and all related mentalistic notions (for instance goals and plans) are used in all phases of software development, from early analysis down to the actual implementation. Second, Tropos covers also the very early phases of requirements analysis, thus allowing for a deeper understanding of the environment where the software must operate, and of the kind of interactions that should occur between software and human agents. The methodology is illustrated with the help of a case study. The Tropos language for conceptual modeling is formalized in a metamodel described with a set of UML class diagrams.