A model checker for statecharts (linking case tools with formal methods)

Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools encourage users to codify the specification for the design of a system early in the development process. They often use graphical formalisms, simulation, and prototyping to help express ideas concisely and unambiguously. Some tools provide little more than syntax checking of the specification but others can test the model for reachability of conditions, nondeterminism, or deadlock. Formal methods include powerful tools like automatic model checking to exhaustively check a model against certain requirements. Integrating formal techniques into the sys-tem development process is an effective method of providing more thorough analysis of specifications than conventional approaches employed by Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. In order to create this link, the formalism used by the CASE tool must have a precise formal semantics that can be understood by the verification tool. The CASE tool STATEMATE makes use of an extended state transition notation called statecharts. We have formalized an operational semantics for statecharts by embedding them in the logical framework of an interactive proof-assistant system called HOL. A software interface is provided to extract a statechart directly from the STATEMATE database. Using HOL in combination with Voss, a binary decision diagram-based verification tool, we have developed a model checker for statecharts which tests whether an operational specification, given by a statechart, satisfies a descriptive specification of the system requirements. The model checking procedure is a simple higher-order logic function which executes the semantics of statecharts. In this thesis, we describe the formal semantics of statecharts and the model checking algorithm. Various examples, including an intersection with a traffic light and an arbiter, are presented to illustrate the method.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science - MSc

Level thesis:degree_level

master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

University of British Columbia

Year dc:date

1993

Author dc:creator

• Day, Nancy Ann

Statement dc:rights

• For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/1638

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/1638