SMT-Based Consistency Checking of Configuration-Based Components Specifications

Laura Pandolfo,Simone Vuotto,Luca Pulina

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3085911

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, the seamless integration of computational algorithms and physical components. CPSs are widely used in many safety-critical domains, making it crucial to ensure that they operate safely without causing harm to people and the environment. Therefore, their design should be robust enough to deal with unexpected conditions and flexible to answer to the high scalability and complexity of systems. Nowadays, it is well-established that formal verification has a great potential in reinforcing safety of critical systems, but nevertheless its application in the development of industrial products may still be a challenging activity. In this paper, we describe an approach based on Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) to formally verify, at the design stage, the consistency of the system design - expressed in a given domain-specific language, called QRML, which is specifically designed for CPSs - with respect to some given property constraints, with the purpose to reduce inconsistencies during the system development process. To this end, we propose an SMT-based approach for checking the consistency of configuration based-components specifications and we report the results of the experimental analysis using three different state-of-the-art SMT solvers. The main goal of the experimental analysis is to test the scalability of the selected SMT solvers and thus to determine which SMT solver is the best in checking the satisfiability of the properties.

Highlights

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are real-time embedded systems in which the software controllers continuously interact with physical environments, possibly with humans in the loop
In order to cope with this task, we present our Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT)-based approach implemented into a tool able to check the consistency of configuration based-components design expressed in QRML with the purpose to formally check by means of an SMT solver whether the configurations guarantee to satisfy all the properties
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed SMT approach, we have developed an automated generator of Domain Specific Language (DSL) specifications and employed three different state-of-the-art SMT solvers to check the satisfiability of the translated SMT properties

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are real-time embedded systems in which the software controllers continuously interact with physical environments, possibly with humans in the loop. Checking the consistency of configuration-based components specifications at design-time is an important task, in order to formally ensure their correctness and satisfaction, to avoid manual review which is time-consuming and errorprone. It is crucial for reducing time-to-market window in industrial applications use cases within the project. The purpose of the experimental analysis here reported is mainly to test the scalability of the selected SMT solvers and to determine which SMT solver is the best in checking the satisfiability of the properties As it will be shown later in the paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed SMT -based approach to verify configuration-based components design of various sizes within a reasonable time.

BACKGROUND

CONSISTENCY CHECKING

INSTANCES AND SOLVERS

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Findings

CONCLUSION