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2016, Proceedings of the 31st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
We propose a formal framework to model an automated adaptation protocol based on Quantitative Partial Model Checking (QPMC). An agent seeks the collaboration of a second agent to satisfy some (fixed) condition on the actions to be executed. The provided protocol allows the two agents to automatically agree by iteratively applying QPMC.
Formal Aspects of Component Software, 2017
We address the problem of automatically identifying what local properties the agents of a Cyber Physical System have to satisfy to guarantee a global required property φ. To enrich the picture, we consider properties where, besides qualitative requirements on the actions to be performed, we assume a weight associated with them: quantitative properties are specified through a weighted modal-logic. We propose both a formal machinery based on a Quantitative Partial Model Checking function on contexts, and a run-time machinery that algorithmically tries to check if the local behaviours proposed by the agents satisfy φ. The proposed approach can be seen as a run-time decomposition, privacysensitive in the sense agents do not have to disclose their full behaviour.
2006
This paper presents mcmas, a model checker for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). Differently from traditional model checkers, mcmas permits the automatic verification of specifications that use epistemic, correctness, and cooperation modalities, in addition to the standard temporal modalities.
Proceedings of the IEEE/ …, 2010
Model checking is a very successful technique which has been applied in the design and verification of finite state concurrent reactive processes. In this paper we show how this technique can be lifted to be applicable to multiagent systems. Our approach allows us to reuse the technology and tools developed in model checking, to design and verify multiagent systems in a modular and incremental way, and also to have a very efficient model checking algorithm.
2006
We present MABLE, a fully implemented programming language for multiagent systems, which is intended to support the automatic verification of such systems via model checking. In addition to the conventional constructs of imperative programming languages, MABLE provides a number of agent-oriented development features. First, agents in MABLE are endowed with a BDI-like mental state: they have data structures corresponding to beliefs, desires, and intentions, and these mental states may be arbitrarily nested.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
The paper addresses the problem of agents compatibility and their conformance to protocols. We assume that the specification of protocols is given in an action theory by means of temporal constraints and, in particular, communicative actions are defined in terms of their effects and preconditions on the social state of the protocol. We show that the problem of verifying the conformance of an agent with a protocol can be solved by making use of an automata based approach, and that the conformance of a set of agents with a protocol guarantees that their interaction cannot produce deadlock situations and it only gives rise to runs of the protocol. This research has been partially supported by the project PRIN 2005 "Specification and verification of agent interaction protocols".
Self-adaptation enables a software system to deal autonomously with uncertainties, such as dynamic operating conditions that are difficult to predict or changing goals. A common approach to realize self-adaptation is with a MAPE-K feedback loop that consists of four adaptation components: Monitor, Analyze, Plan, and Execute. These components share Knowledge models of the managed system, its goals and environment. To provide guarantees of the adaptation goals, state of the art approaches propose using formal models of the knowledge. However, less attention is given to the formalization of the adaptation components themselves, which is important to provide guarantees of correctness of the adaptation behavior (e.g., does the execute component execute the plan correctly?). We propose Active FORmal Models for Self-adaptation (ActivFORMS) that uses an integrated formal model of the adaptation components and knowledge models. The formal model is directly executed by a virtual machine to realize adaptation, hence active model. The contributions of ActivFORMS are: (1) the approach assures that the adaptation goals that are verified offline are guaranteed at runtime, and (2) it supports dynamic adaptation of the active model to support changing goals. We show how we have applied ActivFORMS for a small-scale robotic system.
Model checking is a very successful technique which has been applied in the design and veriication of nite state concurrent reactive processes. In this paper we show how this technique can be lifted to be applicable to multiagent systems. Our approach allows us to reuse the technology and tools developed in model checking, to design and verify multiagent systems in a modular and incremental way, and also to have a very eecient model checking algorithm.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006
In open multi-agent systems agent interaction is usually ruled by public protocols defining the rules the agents should respect in message exchanging. The respect of such rules guarantees interoperability. Given two agents that agree on using a certain protocol for their interaction, a crucial issue (known as "a priori conformance test") is verifying if their interaction policies, i.e. the programs that encode their communicative behavior, will actually produce interactions which are conformant to the agreed protocol. An issue that is not always made clear in the existing proposals for conformance tests is whether the test preserves agents' capability of interacting, besides certifying the legality of their possible conversations. This work proposes an approach to the verification of a priori conformance, of an agent's conversation policy to a protocol, which is based on the theory of formal languages. The conformance test is based on the acceptance of both the policy and the protocol by a special finite state automaton and it guarantees the interoperability of agents that are individually proved conformant. Many protocols used in multi-agent systems can be expressed as finite state automata, so this approach can be applied to a wide variety of cases with the proviso that both the protocol specification and the protocol implementation can be translated into finite state automata. In this sense the approach is general. Easy applicability to the case when a logic-based language is used to implement the policies is shown by means of a concrete example, in which the language DyLOG, based on computational logic, is used.
2010
... & Computing Sciences Padualaan 14 3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands [email protected] John-Jules Ch. Meyer Utrecht University Dept. Information & Computer Sciences Padualaan 14 3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands [email protected] Koen V. Hindriks Delft University of ...
2006
Abstract A multi-agent system (MAS) is usually understood as a system composed of interacting autonomous agents. In this sense, MAS have been employed successfully as a modelling paradigm in a number of scenarios, especially in Computer Science. However, the process of modelling complex and heterogeneous systems is intrinsically prone to errors: for this reason, computer scientists are typically concerned with the issue of verifying that a system actually behaves as it is supposed to, especially when a system is complex.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2009
The paper deals with the problem of agents conformance with multiparty protocols. We introduce a notion of conformance of a set of k agents with a multiparty protocol with k roles, which requires the agents to be interoperable and to produce correct executions of the protocol. We introduce conditions that enable each agent to be independently verified with respect to the protocol. We assume that protocols are specified in a temporal action theory and we show that the problem of verifying the conformance of an agent with a protocol can be solved by making use of automata based techniques. Protocols with nonterminating computations, modeling reactive agents, can also be captured in this framework.
2009
While temporal logic in its various forms has proven essential to reason about reactive systems, agent-based scenarios are typically specified by considering high-level agents attitudes. In particular, specification languages based on epistemic logic [7], or logics for knowledge, have proven useful in a variety of areas including robotics, security protocols, web-services, etc.
IET Conference on Control and Automation 2013: Uniting Problems and Solutions, 2013
Closed loop systems are traditionally analysed using simulation. We show how a formal approach, namely model checking, can be used to enhance and inform this analysis. Specifically, model checking can be used to verify properties for any execution of a system, not just a single experimental path. We describe how model checking has been used to investigate a system consisting of a robot navigating around an environment, avoiding obstacles using sequence learning. We illustrate the power of this approach by showing how a previous assumption about the system, gained though vigorous simulation, was demonstrated to be incorrect, using the formal approach.
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 2006
This paper gives an overview of our recent work on an approach to verifying multi-agent programs. We automatically translate multi-agent systems programmed in the logic-based agent-oriented programming language AgentSpeak into either Promela or Java, and then use the associated Spin and JPF model checkers to verify the resulting systems. We also describe the simplified BDI logical language that is used to write the properties we want the systems to satisfy. The approach is illustrated by means of a simple case study.
Open Computer Science
Self-adaptive systems (SASs) have the capability to evaluate and change their behavior according to changes occurring in the environment. Research in this field is being held since mid-60, and over the last decade, the importance of self-adaptivity is being increased. In the proposed research, colored petri nets (CPN) formal language is being used to model self-adaptive multiagent system. CPN is increasingly used to model self-adaptive complex concurrent systems due to its flexible formal specification and formal verification behavior. CPN being visually more expressive than simple, Petri Nets enable diverse modeling approaches and provides a richer framework for such a complex formalism. The main goal of this research is to apply self-adaptive multi-agent concurrent system (SMACS) for complex architectures. In our previous research, the SMACS framework is proposed and verified through traffic monitoring system. All agents of SMACS are also known as intelligent agents due to their s...
Science of Computer Programming, 2015
A hierarchical approach for modelling the adaptability features of complex systems is introduced. It is based on a structural level S, describing the adaptation dynamics of the system, and a behavioural level B accounting for the description of the admissible dynamics of the system. Moreover, a unified system, called S[B], is defined by coupling S and B. The adaptation semantics is such that the S level imposes structural constraints on the B level, which has to adapt whenever it no longer can satisfy them. In this context, we introduce weak and strong adaptability, i.e. the ability of a system to adapt for some evolution paths or for all possible evolutions, respectively. We provide a relational characterisation for these two notions and we show that adaptability checking, i.e. deciding if a system is weak or strong adaptable, can be reduced to a CTL model checking problem. We apply the model and the theoretical results to the case study of a motion controller of autonomous transport vehicles.
Abstract. In this paper, we are investigating the model checking technique for solving the discrete controller synthesis problem for multiagents multi-modal systems. The key idea is: 1) to use formal logic formulas to encode the mission and the constraints; 2) to use model checker to automatically eliminate the infeasible paths based on the reachability properties of the bisimilar quotient systems; 3) to synthesize controllers to restrict the system to feasible paths. An efficient design-time algorithm for control synthesis is presented.
Formal Methods in System Design, 2012
We apply model checking of knowledge properties to the design of distributed controllers that enforce global constraints on concurrent systems. The problem of synthesizing a distributed controller is, in general, undecidable, and the local knowledge of the processes may not directly suffice to control them to achieve the global constraint. We calculate when processes can decide, autonomously, to take or block an action so that the global constraint will not be violated. When the separate processes cannot make this decision alone, it may be possible to temporarily coordinate several processes in order to achieve sufficient knowledge jointly and make combined decisions. Since the overhead induced by such coordinations is important, we strive to minimize their number, again using model checking . We show how this framework is applied to the design of controllers that guarantee a priority policy among transitions.
Declarative Agent Languages and Technologies, 2010
Using model checking to verify that interaction protocols have given properties is widely recognized as an important issue in multi-agent systems where autonomous and heterogeneous agents need to successfully regulate and coordinate their interactions. In this paper, we investigate the use of symbolic model checkers to verify the compliance of a special kind of interaction protocols called commitment protocols with
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