Alternating-time Temporal Logic Research Articles

Optimal Tableau Method for Constructive Satisfiability Testing and Model Synthesis in the Alternating-Time Temporal Logic ATL +

We develop a sound, complete, and practically implementable tableau-based decision method for constructive satisfiability testing and model synthesis for the fragment ATL + of the full alternating-time temporal logic ALT * . The method extends in an essential way a previously developed tableau-based decision method for ATL and works in 2EXPTIME, which is the optimal worst-case complexity of the satisfiability problem for ATL + . We also discuss how suitable parameterizations and syntactic restrictions on the class of input ATL + formulas can reduce the complexity of the satisfiability problem.

ATLsc with partial observation

Alternating-time temporal logic with strategy contexts (ATLsc) is a powerful formalism for expressing properties of multi-agent systems: it extends CTL with strategy quantifiers, offering a convenient way of expressing both collaboration and antagonism between several agents. Incomplete observation of the state space is a desirable feature in such a framework, but it quickly leads to undecidable verification problems. In this paper, we prove that uniform incomplete observation (where all players have the same observation) preserves decidability of the model-checking problem, even for very expressive logics such as ATLsc.

Verification of JADE Agents Using ATL Model Checking

It is widely accepted that the key to successfully developing a system is to produce a thorough system specification and design. This task requires an appropriate formal method and a suitable tool to determine whether or not an implementation conforms to the specifications. In this paper we present an advanced technique to analyse, design and debug JADE software agents, using Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL) which is interpreted over concurrent game structures, considered as natural models for compositions of open systems. In development of the proposed solution, we will use our original ATL model checker. In contrast to previous approaches, our tool permits an interactive or programmatic design of the ATL models as state-transition graphs, and is based on client/server architecture: ATL Designer, the client tool, allows an interactive construction of the concurrent game structures as a directed multi-graphs and the ATL Checker, the core of our tool, represents the server part and is published as Web service.

Augmenting [formula omitted] with strategy contexts

We study the extension of the alternating-time temporal logic (ATL) with strategy contexts: contrary to the original semantics, in this semantics the strategy quantifiers do not reset the previously selected strategies.We show that our extension ATLsc is very expressive, but that its decision problems are quite hard: model checking is k-EXPTIME-complete when the formula has k nested strategy quantifiers; satisfiability is undecidable, but we prove that it is decidable when restricting to turn-based games. Our algorithms are obtained through a very convenient translation to QCTL (the computation-tree logic CTL extended with atomic quantification), which we show also applies to Strategy Logic, as well as when strategy quantification ranges over memoryless strategies.

An Extension of ATL with Strategy Interaction

We propose an extension to ATL ( alternating-time temporal logic ), called BSIL ( basic strategy-interaction logic ), for specifying collaboration among agents in a multiagent system. We show that BSIL is strictly more expressive than ATL + but incomparable with ATL * , GL ( game logic ), and AMC ( alternating μ-calculus ) in expressiveness. We show that a memoryful strategy is necessary for fulfilling a specification in BSIL. We establish that the BSIL model-checking problem is PSPACE-complete. However, BSIL model checking can be performed in time quadratic in the model for fixed formulas. The BSIL (and hence ATL + ) satisfiability is 2EXPTIME-complete. Finally, we report our experiment with a model checker for BSIL.

Alternating-time temporal logic with resource bounds

Many problems in AI and multi-agent systems research are most naturally formulated in terms of the abilities of a coalition of agents. There exist several excellent logical tools for reasoning about coalitional ability. However, coalitional ability can be affected by the availability of resources, and there is no straightforward way of reasoning about resource requirements in logics such as Coalition Logic (CL) and Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL). In this article, we describe a logic for reasoning about coalitional ability under resource constraints. We extend ATL with costs of actions and hence of strategies. We give a complete and sound axiomatization of the resulting logic, Resource-Bounded ATL (RB-ATL) and a model-checking algorithm for it.

Kripke Incompleteness of First-order Calculi with Temporal Modalities of CTL and Near Logics

We study an expressive power of temporal operators used in such logics of branching time as computational tree logic or alternating-time temporal logic. To do this we investigate calculi in the first-order language enriched with the temporal operators used in such logics. We show that the resulting languages are so powerful that many ‘natural’ calculi in the languages are not Kripke complete; for example, if a calculus in such language is correct with respect to the class of all serial linear Kripke frames (even just with constant domains) then it is not Kripke complete. Some near questions are discussed.

Reasoning about memoryless strategies under partial observability and unconditional fairness constraints

Alternating-time Temporal Logic is a logic to reason about strategies that agents can adopt to achieve a specified collective goal.A number of extensions for this logic exist; some of them combine strategies and partial observability, some others include fairness constraints, but to the best of our knowledge no work provides a unified framework for strategies, partial observability and fairness constraints. Integration of these three concepts is important when reasoning about the capabilities of agents without full knowledge of a system, for instance when the agents can assume that the environment behaves in a fair way.We present ATLKirF, a logic combining strategies under partial observability in a system with fairness constraints on states. We introduce a model-checking algorithm for ATLKirF by extending the algorithm for a full-observability variant of the logic and we investigate its complexity. We validate our proposal with an experimental evaluation.

State and path coalition effectivity models of concurrent multi-player games

We consider models of multi-player games where abilities of players and coalitions are defined in terms of sets of outcomes which they can effectively enforce. We extend the well studied state effectivity models of one-step games in two different ways. On the one hand, we develop multiple state effectivity functions associated with different long-term temporal operators. On the other hand, we define and study coalitional path effectivity models where the outcomes of strategic plays are infinite paths. For both extensions we obtain representation results with respect to concrete models arising from concurrent game structures. We also apply state and path coalitional effectivity models to provide alternative, arguably more natural and elegant semantics to the alternating-time temporal logic ATL*, and discuss their technical and conceptual advantages.

Relentful strategic reasoning in alternating-time temporal logic

Temporal logics are a well investigated formalism for the specification, verification, and synthesis of reactive systems. Within this family, alternating temporal logic, ATL*, has been introduced as a useful generalization of classical linear- and branching-time temporal logics by allowing temporal operators to be indexed by coalitions of agents. Classically, temporal logics are memoryless: once a path in the computation tree is quantified at a given node, the computation that has led to that node is forgotten. Recently, mCTL* has been defined as a memoryful variant of CTL*, where path quantification is memoryful. In the context of multi-agent planning, memoryful quantification enables agents to relent and change their goals and strategies depending on their past history. In this paper, we define mATL*, a memoryful extension of ATL*, in which a formula is satisfied at a certain node of a path by taking into account both the future and the past. We study the expressive power of mATL*, its succinctness, as well as related decision problems. We also investigate the relationship between memoryful quantification and past modalities and show their equivalence. We show that both the memoryful and the past extensions come without any computational price; indeed, we prove that both the satisfiability and the model-checking problems are 2EXPTIME-COMPLETE, as they are for ATL*.

Refining and Delegating Strategic Ability in ATL

We propose extending Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL) by an operator <i refines-to G> F to express that agent i can distribute its powers to a set of sub-agents G in a way which satisfies ATL condition f on the strategic ability of the coalitions they may form, possibly together with others agents. We prove the decidability of model-checking of formulas whose subformulas with this operator as the main connective have the form <i_1 refines-to G_1>...<i_m refines-to G_m> f, with no further occurrences of this operator in f.

Comparing variants of strategic ability: how uncertainty and memory influence general properties of games

Alternating-time temporal logic (ATL) is a modal logic that allows to reason about agents' abilities in game-like scenarios. Semantic variants of ATL are usually built upon different assumptions about the kind of game that is played, including capabilities of agents (perfect vs. imperfect information, perfect vs. imperfect memory, etc.). ATL has been studied extensively in previous years; however, most of the research focused on model checking. Studies of other decision problems (e.g., satisfiability) and formal meta-properties of the logic (like axiomatization or expressivity) have been relatively scarce, and mostly limited to the basic variant of ATL where agents possess perfect information and perfect memory. In particular, a comparison between different semantic variants of the logic is largely left untouched. In this paper, we show that different semantics of ability in ATL give rise to different validity sets. The issue is important for several reasons. First, many logicians identify a logic with its set of true sentences. As a consequence, we prove that different notions of ability induce different strategic logics. Secondly, we show that different concepts of ability induce different general properties of games. Thirdly, the study can be seen as the first systematic step towards satisfiability-checking algorithms for ATL with imperfect information. We introduce sophisticated unfoldings of models and prove invariance results that are an important technical contribution to formal analysis of strategic logics.

Model checking coalitional games in shortage resource scenarios

Verification of multi-agents systems (MAS) has been recently studied taking into account the need of expressing resource bounds. Several logics for specifying properties of MAS have been presented in quite a variety of scenarios with bounded resources. In this paper, we study a different formalism, called Priced Resource-Bounded Alternating-time Temporal Logic (PRBATL), whose main novelty consists in moving the notion of resources from a syntactic level (part of the formula) to a semantic one (part of the model). This allows us to track the evolution of the resource availability along the computations and provides us with a formalisms capable to model a number of real-world scenarios. Two relevant aspects are the notion of global availability of the resources on the market, that are shared by the agents, and the notion of price of resources, depending on their availability. In a previous work of ours, an initial step towards this new formalism was introduced, along with an EXPTIME algorithm for the model checking problem. In this paper we better analyze the features of the proposed formalism, also in comparison with previous approaches. The main technical contribution is the proof of the EXPTIME-hardness of the the model checking problem for PRBATL, based on a reduction from the acceptance problem for Linearly-Bounded Alternating Turing Machines. In particular, since the problem has multiple parameters, we show two fixed-parameter reductions.

Alternating-time temporal logic with finite-memory strategies

Model-checking the alternating-time temporal logics ATL and ATL* with incomplete information is undecidable for perfect recall semantics. However, when restricting to memoryless strategies the model-checking problem becomes decidable. In this paper we consider two other types of semantics based on finite-memory strategies. One where the memory size allowed is bounded and one where the memory size is unbounded (but must be finite). This is motivated by the high complexity of model-checking with perfect recall semantics and the severe limitations of memoryless strategies. We show that both types of semantics introduced are different from perfect recall and memoryless semantics and next focus on the decidability and complexity of model-checking in both complete and incomplete information games for ATL/ATL*. In particular, we show that the complexity of model-checking with bounded-memory semantics is Delta_2p-complete for ATL and PSPACE-complete for ATL* in incomplete information games just as in the memoryless case. We also present a proof that ATL and ATL* model-checking is undecidable for n >= 3 players with finite-memory semantics in incomplete information games.

Reducing Validity in Epistemic ATL to Validity in Epistemic CTL

We propose a validity preserving translation from a subset of epistemic Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL) to epistemic Computation Tree Logic (CTL). The considered subset of epistemic ATL is known to have the finite model property and decidable model-checking. This entails the decidability of validity but the implied algorithm is unfeasible. Reducing the validity problem to that in a corresponding system of CTL makes the techniques for automated deduction for that logic available for the handling of the apparently more complex system of ATL.

Strategic Analysis of Trust Models for User-Centric Networks

We present a strategic analysis of a trust model that has recently been proposed for promoting cooperative behaviour in user-centric networks. The mechanism for cooperation is based on a combination of reputation and virtual currency schemes in which service providers reward paying customers and punish non-paying ones by adjusting their reputation, and hence the price they pay for services. We model and analyse this system using PRISM-games, a tool that performs automated verification and strategy synthesis for stochastic multi-player games using the probabilistic alternating-time temporal logic with rewards (rPATL). We construct optimal strategies for both service users and providers, which expose potential risks of the cooperation mechanism and which we use to devise improvements that counteract these risks.

Reasoning about Strategies under Partial Observability and Fairness Constraints

A number of extensions exist for Alternating-time Temporal Logic; some of these mix strategies and partial observability but, to the best of our knowledge, no work provides a unified framework for strategies, partial observability and fairness constraints. In this paper we propose ATLK^F_po, a logic mixing strategies under partial observability and epistemic properties of agents in a system with fairness constraints on states, and we provide a model checking algorithm for it.

Stochastic game logic

Stochastic game logic (SGL) is a new temporal logic for multi-agent systems modeled by turn-based multi-player games with discrete transition probabilities. It combines features of alternating-time temporal logic (ATL), probabilistic computation tree logic and extended temporal logic. SGL contains an ATL-like modality to specify the individual cooperation and reaction facilities of agents in the multi-player game to enforce a certain winning objective. While the standard ATL modality states the existence of a strategy for a certain coalition of agents without restricting the range of strategies for the semantics of inner SGL formulae, we deal with a more general modality. It also requires the existence of a strategy for some coalition, but imposes some kind of strategy binding to inner SGL formulae. This paper presents the syntax and semantics of SGL and discusses its model checking problem for different types of strategies. The model checking problem of SGL turns out to be undecidable when dealing with the full class of history-dependent strategies. We show that the SGL model checking problem for memoryless deterministic strategies as well as the model checking problem of the qualitative fragment of SGL for memoryless randomized strategies is PSPACE-complete, and we establish a close link between natural syntactic fragments of SGL and the polynomial hierarchy. Further, we give a reduction from the SGL model checking problem under memoryless randomized strategies into the Tarski algebra which proves the problem to be in EXPSPACE.

On timed alternating simulation for concurrent timed games

We address the problem of alternating simulation refinement for concurrent timed games (TG). We show that checking timed alternating simulation between TG is EXPTIME-complete, and provide a logical characterization of this preorder in terms of a meaningful fragment of a new logic, TAMTL*. TAMTL* is an action-based timed extension of standard alternating-time temporal logic ATL*, which allows to quantify over strategies where the designated coalition of players is not responsible for blocking time. While for full TAMTL*, model-checking TG is undecidable, we show that for its fragment TAMTL, corresponding to the timed version of ATL, the problem is instead decidable and in EXPTIME.

MODEL-CHECKING ALTERNATING-TIME TEMPORAL LOGIC WITH STRATEGIES BASED ON COMMON KNOWLEDGE IS UNDECIDABLE

We present a semantics for the Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL) with imperfect information, in which the participants in a coalition choose their strategies such that each agent's choice is the same in all states that form the common knowledge for the coaltion. We show that ATL with this semantics has an undecidable model-checking problem if the semantics is also synchronous and the agents have perfect recall.