Abstract
Directed model checking is a well-established approach for detecting error states in concurrent systems. A popular variant to find shortest error traces is to apply the A\(^*\) search algorithm with distance heuristics that never overestimate the real error distance. An important class of such distance heuristics is the class of pattern database heuristics. Pattern database heuristics are built on abstractions of the system under consideration. In this paper, we propose downward pattern refinement, a systematic approach for the construction of pattern database heuristics for concurrent systems of timed automata. First, we propose a general framework for pattern databases in the context of timed automata and show that desirable theoretical properties hold for the resulting pattern database. Afterward, we formally define a concept to measure the accuracy of abstractions. Based on this concept, we propose an algorithm for computing succinct abstractions that are still accurate to produce informed pattern databases. We evaluate our approach on large and complex industrial problems. The experiments show the practical potential of the resulting pattern database heuristic.
Highlights
Model checking [4] is an automated approach for the verification of concurrent systems
We demonstrate that downward pattern refinement can result in small patterns that still lead to very informed pattern database heuristics
We have provided the theoretical background for a pattern selection algorithm for timed automata: Based on the concepts provided by Definition 4 and Propositions 3, 4 and 6, we have derived tractable criteria to estimate the similarity of abstractions for the purpose of computing pattern database heuristics
Summary
Model checking [4] is an automated approach for the verification of concurrent systems. E., to detect reachable error states in faulty systems where M | φ. This is important because during the development of systems, bugs do often occur, and effective and efficient approaches for bug finding are required. To be able to debug a system effectively, it is important to have short or preferably shortest possible error traces because short error traces are easier to understand than longer ones. Directed model checking is a variant of model checking that is optimized to find short error traces in faulty systems. As shorter error traces are easier to understand than longer ones, shortest possible error traces are desired to effectively debug the system. Shortest possible error traces can be found with admissible distance heuristics, i. Shortest possible error traces can be found with admissible distance heuristics, i. e., heuristics that never overestimate the real error distance, together with the A∗ search algorithm [15,16]
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