A new methodology for analyzing distributed systems modeled by petri nets

Distributed computing systems can be modeled adequately by Petri nets. The computation of invariants of Petri nets becomes necessary for proving the properties of modeled systems. This paper presents a two-phase, bottom-up approach for invariant computation and analysis of Petri nets. In the first phase, a newly defined subnet, called the RP-subnet, with an invariant is chosen. In the second phase, the selected RP-subnet is analyzed. Our methodology is illustrated with two examples viz., the dining philosophers' problem and the connection-disconnection phase of a transport protocol. We believe that this new method, which is computationally no worse than the existing techniques, would simplify the analysis of many practical distributed systems.     

Quantifier-free encoding of invariants for hybrid systems

Hybrid systems are a clean modeling framework for embedded systems, which feature integrated discrete and continuous dynamics. A well-known source of complexity comes from the time invariants, which represent an implicit quantification of a constraint over all time points of a continuous transition. Emerging techniques based on Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) have been found promising for the verification and validation of hybrid systems because they combine discrete reasoning with solvers for first-order theories. However, these techniques are efficient for quantifier-free theories and the current approaches have so far either ignored time invariants or have been limited to hybrid systems with linear constraints. In this paper, we propose a new method that encodes a class of hybrid systems into transition systems with quantifier-free formulas. The method does not rely on expensive quantifier elimination procedures. Rather, it exploits the sequential nature of the transition system to split the continuous evolution enforcing the invariants on the discrete time points. This way, we can encode all hybrid systems whose invariants can be expressed in terms of polynomial constraints. This pushes the application of SMT-based techniques beyond the standard linear case.     

Livelocks in parallel programs

This paper is the second of a two-part series exploring the subtle correctness criterion of the absence of livelocks in parallel programs. In this paper we are concerned with the issue of proving this correctness criterion. It is shown that livelocks are not preserved by reduction, implying that reduction cannot be used directly in proving the absence of livelocks. Two applicable proof techniques are also presented. One is based on the notion of establishing sufficient conditions for livelock-freedom; the other is an extension of the well-founded set method for proving termination in sequential programs.     

基于局部坐标系和哈希技术的空间曲线匹配算法

针对三维物体识别领域中的问题,提出了一种基于局部坐标系和哈希技术的空间曲线匹配算法,该方法通过提取一条曲线的恒定特征点,构造局部坐标系;然后再计算局部坐标系中的相似不变量,构造哈希表;采哈希技术对这些不变量进行比较,达到匹配曲线的目的。此算法应用于计算机辅助文物复原系统中,经实验表明,给所方法具有运行稳定,高效和适用性强等优点。     

MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES WITH UNCERTAIN TRANSITION RATES: SENSITIVITY AND MAX HYPHEN MIN CONTROL

Solution techniques for Markov decision problems rely on exact knowledge of the transition rates, which may be difficult or impossible to obtain. In this paper, we consider Markov decision problems with uncertain transition rates represented as compact sets. We first consider the problem of sensitivity analysis where the aim is to quantify the range of uncertainty of the average per‐unit‐time reward given the range of uncertainty of the transition rates. We then develop solution techniques for the problem of obtaining the max‐min optimal policy, which maximizes the worst‐case average per‐unit‐time reward. In each of these problems, we distinguish between systems that can have their transition rates chosen independently and those where the transition rates depend on each other. Our solution techniques are applicable to Markov decision processes with fixed but unknown transition rates and to those with time‐varying transition rates.     

Automatic Construction and Verification of Isotopy Invariants

We extend our previous study of the automatic construction of isomorphic classification theorems for algebraic domains by considering the isotopy equivalence relation. Isotopism is an important generalisation of isomorphism, and is studied by mathematicians in domains such as loop theory. This extension was not straightforward, and we had to solve two major technical problems, namely, generating and verifying isotopy invariants. Concentrating on the domain of loop theory, we have developed three novel techniques for generating isotopic invariants, by using the notion of universal identities and by using constructions based on subblocks. In addition, given the complexity of the theorems that verify that a conjunction of the invariants form an isotopy class, we have developed ways of simplifying the problem of proving these theorems. Our techniques employ an interplay of computer algebra, model generation, theorem proving, and satisfiability-solving methods. To demonstrate the power of the approach, we generate isotopic classification theorems for loops of size 6 and 7, which extend the previously known enumeration results. This work was previously beyond the capabilities of automated reasoning techniques. The author’s work was supported by EPSRC MathFIT grant GR/S31099.     

Security invariants in discrete transition systems

The Shadow semantics is a qualitative model for noninterference security for sequential programs. In this paper, we first extend the Shadow semantics to Event-B, to reason about discrete transition systems with noninterference security properties. In particular, we investigate how these security properties can be specified and proved as machine invariants. Next we highlight the role of security invariants during refinement and identify some common patterns in specifying them. Finally, we propose a practical extension to the supporting Rodin platform of Event-B, with the possibility of having some properties to be invariants-by-construction.     

共形几何代数与几何不变量的代数运算

几何不变量的使用是计算机视觉和图形学的一个重要手段.发现一个不变量后,如何找到它与其他不变量的关系,是实际应用中的一个重要问题,这种关系的探讨主要依靠在不变量层次上的代数运算.文中介绍了共形几何代数中的基本、高级和有理不变量如何在几何问题中自然出现,它们之间如何进行代数运算,以及如何通过不变量的化简,自然地得到几何条件的充分必要化和几何定理的完全化.几何定理的机器证明作为几何定理完全化的副产品,被发展成几何定理的关系定量化,这种量化的几何还原就是几何定理的自然推广.几何不变量之间的几何关系的计算是这些技术的一个具体应用.     

Beyond contracts for concurrency

SCOOP is a concurrent programming language with a new semantics for contracts that applies equally well in concurrent and sequential contexts. SCOOP eliminates race conditions and atomicity violations by construction. However, it is still vulnerable to deadlocks. In this paper we describe how far contracts can take us in verifying interesting properties of concurrent systems using modular Hoare rules and show how theorem proving methods developed for sequential Eiffel can be extended to the concurrent case. However, some safety and liveness properties depend upon the environment and cannot be proved using the Hoare rules. To deal with such system properties, we outline a SCOOP Virtual Machine (SVM) as a fair transition system. The SVM makes it feasible to use model-checking and theorem proving methods for checking global temporal logic properties of SCOOP programs. The SVM uses the Hoare rules where applicable to reduce the number of steps in a computation. P. J. Brooke, R. F. Paige and Dong Jin Song This work was conducted under an NSERC Discovery grant.     

Proving termination of (conditional) rewrite systems

In this paper an important problem in the domain of term rewriting, the termination of (conditional) rewrite systems, is dealt with. We show that in many applications, well-founded orderings on terms which only make use of syntactic information of a rewrite systemR, do not suffice for proving termination ofR. Indeed sometimes semantic information is needed to orient a rewrite rule. Therefore we integrate a semantic interpretation of rewrite systems and terms into a well-founded ordering on terms: the notion ofsemantic ordering is the first main contribution of this paper. The use and usefulness of the semantic ordering in proving termination is illustrated by means of some realistic examples.Furthermore the concept of semantic information induces a novel approach for proving termination inconditional rewrite systems. The idea is to employ not only semantic information contained in the terms that are to be compared, but also extra (semantic) information contained in the premiss of the conditional equation in which the terms appear. This leads to our second contribution in the termination problem area: the notion ofcontextual ordering andcontextual semantic ordering. Thecontextual approach allows to prove termination of conditional rewrite systems where all classical partial orderings would fail.     

Geometric and illumination invariants for object recognition

We propose invariant formulations that can potentially be combined into a single system. In particular, we describe a framework for computing invariant features which are insensitive to rigid motion, affine transform, changes of parameterization and scene illumination, perspective transform, and view point change. This is unlike most current research on image invariants which concentrates on either geometric or illumination invariants exclusively. The formulations are widely applicable to many popular basis representations, such as wavelets, short-time Fourier analysis, and splines. Exploiting formulations that examine information about shape and color at different resolution levels, the new approach is neither strictly global nor local. It enables a quasi-localized, hierarchical shape analysis which is rarely found in other known invariant techniques, such as global invariants. Furthermore, it does not require estimating high-order derivatives in computing invariants (unlike local invariants), whence is more robust. We provide results of numerous experiments on both synthetic and real data to demonstrate the validity and flexibility of the proposed framework     

基于不变式生成的循环停机性验证

循环的停机性验证是程序验证中的一个难点。程序不变式用来描述程序变量的取值关系,其中线性不变式可以帮助描述程序变量间的线性关系,循环不变式能够有效刻画循环中的变量关系。本文基于线性不变式和多项式循环不变式的生成,将循环的停机性验证转化为求解一个最优化问题,给出了一个实用的程序停机性验证框架。基于该框架可以自动地验证程序的停机性,并给出循环的复杂度上界。实验结果说明了该方法的实用性。     

A hybridization of genetic algorithms and fuzzy logic for the single-machine scheduling with flexible maintenance problem under human resource constraints

This work focuses on the problem of scheduling jobs on a single machine that requires flexible maintenance under human resource competence and availability constraints. To solve the problem we developed two fuzzy genetic algorithms that are based on respectively the sequential and total scheduling strategies. The one respecting the sequential strategy consists in two phases. In the first phase, the integrated production and maintenance schedules are generated. In the second one, the human resources are assigned to maintenance activities. The second algorithm respecting a total strategy consists in generating the integrated production and maintenance schedules that explicitly satisfy the human resource constraints. In regard to these two different strategies, we studied then two integrated fuzzy genetic algorithms that use the fuzzy logic framework to deal with the uncertain nature of both production and maintenance data. The proposed genetic algorithms have been implemented and applied to non-standard test problems which integrate production, maintenance and human resource data. The experimental results show that the consideration of human resource constraints and uncertainties allows to get more realistic and applicable solutions. Moreover, the comparison between the two proposed algorithms shows that the one based on the total strategy outperforms the one based on the sequential strategy regarding the objective functions’ optimization. However, this latter is better in terms of computational times.     

Combining Theorem Proving with Model Checking through Predicate Abstraction

Using theorem-based approaches to prove the invariants of infinite-state reactive systems often demands significant manual involvement. This article presents a new approach in which model checking complements theorem proving, reducing the manual effort involved by transferring user attention from defining inductive invariants to proving rewrite rules. The authors use this approach with ACL2 to verify cache coherence protocols.     

On spiking neural P systems

This work deals with several aspects concerning the formal verification of SN P systems and the computing power of some variants. A methodology based on the information given by the transition diagram associated with an SN P system is presented. The analysis of the diagram cycles codifies invariants formulae which enable us to establish the soundness and completeness of the system with respect to the problem it tries to resolve. We also study the universality of asynchronous and sequential SN P systems and the capability these models have to generate certain classes of languages. Further, by making a slight modification to the standard SN P systems, we introduce a new variant of SN P systems with a special I/O mode, called SN P modules, and study their computing power. It is demonstrated that, as string language acceptors and transducers, SN P modules can simulate several types of computing devices such as finite automata, a-finite transducers, and systolic trellis automata.     

On application of weaker simulations to parameterized model checking by network invariants technique

In this paper we consider parameterized model checking problem of asynchronous communicating processes in the framework of network invariants. The framework of network invariants relies on relations over labelled transition systems such as simulation, bisimulation, trace equivalence and trace inclusion. In the case of asynchronous parallel composition simulation and bisimulation appear to be rather strong and thus require additional abstractions.     

Using heuristic search for finding deadlocks in concurrent systems

Model checking is a formal technique for proving the correctness of a system with respect to a desired behavior. This is accomplished by checking whether a structure representing the system (typically a labeled transition system) satisfies a temporal logic formula describing the expected behavior. Model checking has a number of advantages over traditional approaches that are based on simulation and testing: it is completely automatic and when the verification fails it returns a counterexample that can be used to pinpoint the source of the error. Nevertheless, model checking techniques often fail because of the state explosion problem: transition systems grow exponentially with the number of components. The aim of this paper is to attack the state explosion problem that may arise when looking for deadlocks in concurrent systems described through the calculus of communicating systems. We propose to use heuristics-based techniques, namely the A* algorithm, both to guide the search without constructing the complete transition system, and to provide minimal counterexamples. We have realized a prototype tool to evaluate the methodology. Experiments we have conducted on processes of different size show the benefit from using our technique against building the whole state space, or applying some other methods.     

Fuzzy identification of a greenhouse

Nonlinear dynamic systems’ modelling is difficult. The solutions proposed are generally based on the linearization of the process behaviour around the operating points. Other researches were carried out on this technique of linearization not only around the operating points, but also in all the input–output space allowing the obtaining of several local linear models. The major difficulty with this technique is the model transition. Fuzzy logic makes it possible to solve this problem thanks to its properties of universal approximator. Indeed, many techniques of modelling and identification based on fuzzy logic are often used for this type of systems. Among these techniques, we find those based on the fuzzy clustering technique. The proposed method uses in a first stage the fuzzy clustering technique to determine both the premises and the consequent parameters of the fuzzy Takagi–Sugeno rules. In a second stage these consequent parameters are adapted by using the recursive weighted least squares algorithm with a forgetting factor. We will try in this paper to apply this method to model the air temperature and humidity inside the greenhouse.     

A simplification of a real‐time verification problem

We revisit the problem of real‐time verification with dense‐time dynamics using timeout and calendar‐based models and simplify this to a finite state verification problem. We introduce a specification formalism for these models and capture their behaviour in terms of semantics of timed transition systems. We discuss a technique, which reduces the problem of verification of qualitative temporal properties on infinite state space of a large fragment of these timeout and calender‐based transition systems into that on clock‐less finite state models through a two‐step process comprising of digitization and finitary reduction. This technique enables us to verify safety invariants for real‐time systems using finite state model checking avoiding the complexity of infinite state (bounded) model checking and scale up models without applying techniques from induction‐based proof methodology. In the same manner, we verify timeliness properties. Moreover, we can verify liveness for real‐time systems, which are not possible by using induction with infinite state model checkers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.