Bisimilar linear systems

In this thesis, we introduce and examine four new temporal logic formalisms that can be used as specification languages for the automated verification of the reliability of hardware and software designs with respect to a desired behavior. The work is organized in two parts. In the first one, we reason about two logics for computations, GCTL* and MCTL*, which are useful to describe a correct execution of monolithic closed systems. In the second one, instead, we focus on two logics for strategies, SL and mATL*, which are useful to formalize several interesting properties about interactive plays in multi-entities systems modeled as multi-agent games. In the “Logics for Computations” part, we first study the immersion of the idea of graded quantifications into the temporal-logic framework. In first order logic, existential and universal quantifiers express the concepts of the existence of at least one individual object satisfying a formula, or that all individual objects satisfy a formula. In other logics, these quantifiers have been generalized to express that, for a given non-negative integer n, at least n or all but n individuals satisfy a particular formula. Here, we consider GCTL, a temporal logic with graded path quantifiers, which allows to describe properties like “there exist at least n different classes of computational fluxes in which a system reaches a predetermined state”, where the classes over paths are computed by means of a predetermined equivalence relation. More precisely, we uniformly extend the classic concept of graded quantifiers from states to paths, through the use of a concept of path equivalence with respect to a given path formula. About this logic, in particular, we study the expressiveness and succinctness relationships with respect to GµCalculus and the complexity of the satisfiability problem, which results to be ExpTime-Complete. This research is partially based on the works [BMM09] “Graded Computation Tree Logic” and [BMM10] “Graded Computation Tree Logic with Binary Coding” published, respectively, in the proceedings of the “IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science, 2009” and “EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic, 2010”. Preliminary results can be also found in [Mog07]. Furthermore, we consider special quantifiers over substructures, which allow to select, using parametric criteria, small critical parts of a system to be successively verified. In literature, there are some attempts to define a logic that allows to modify the underlying structure under exam and then to verify on it some assigned property. However, as far as we know, none of them is able to select minimal submodels of a given property describing the criteria on which then execute the verification process. Here, we base our work on the search of a new operator that merges the concept of quantifiers on structures with that one derived by a generalization of the concept of pruning. The results of this work, is a class of three different extensions of CTL* with minimal model quantifiers, which we name MCTL*. Regarding these logics, we study several reductions among them, as well as the satisfiability problem that we prove to be highly undecidability, i.e., Σ_1^1-Hard, for two out of the three cases. This research is partially based on the work [MM09] “Branching-Time Temporal Logics with Minimal Model Quantifiers” published in the proceedings of the “International Conference on Developments in Language Theory, 2009”. In the “Logics for Strategies” part, we first study the problem of defining a new specification language through which it is possible to express several important properties of multi-entities systems that are neither expressible using classical monolithic temporal logics, such as CTL*, nor using two-agent-teams temporal logics, such as ATL*. In literature, we can found some proposal of logics that try to achieve this goal, but unfortunately, none of them succeeds completely on all the aspects. Among them, one of the most important attempts is CHP-SL, a logics in which one can use variables over strategies. However, this logic has a deep weakness, since it does not allow to describe games with more than two players and even two-players concurrent games. Here, we introduce SL, a logic with a syntax similar in some aspects to the first order logic, in which the strategies of the agent building the game are treated as first order objects on which we can quantify. This logic generalizes CHP-SL, by allowing the specification of the correct behavior of multi-agent concurrent games. In SL, for example, we are able to express very complex but useful Nash equilibria that are not expressible with CHP-SL. We enlighten that Nash equilibrium is one of the most important concepts in game theory. For the introduced logic, we solve two problems left open in the work on CHP-SL. Precisely, we show that the related model-checking problem is 2ExpTime-Complete, thus not harder of the same problem for several subsumed logics, while we prove that its satisfiability problem is highly undecidable, i.e., Σ_1^1-Hard. This research is partially based on the work [MMV10a] “Reasoning About Strategies” published in the proceedings of the “IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, 2010”. Finally, we consider the concept of relentful strategic reasoning, i.e., a formalism that expresses the ability of a strategy to be used not only to achieve a first given goal, but also to change its final goal in dependence of the history of the play. In the context of planning, memoryful quantification, i.e., quantification over computations that does not lose information about the past along the time, is one of the principal way to express the fact that a system is able to achieve a desired result, and shift to a different goal if some event happens. However, this kind of quantification was not considered before in the context of multi-agent planning. Here, we introduce mATL*, a fusion of the classic alternating temporal logic ATL* with memoryful quantification, with the aim of covering the previous idea. About this logics, we prove that, although it is equivalent to ATL*, it is exponentially more succinct. Nevertheless, we prove that both the model-checking and the satisfiability problems remain 2ExpTime-Complete, as for ATL*. This research is partially based on the work [MMV10b] “Relentful Strategic Reasoning in Alternating-Time Temporal Logic” published in the proceedings of the “International Conference on Logic for Programming Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning, 2010”.

This chapter studies null controllability of continuous-time linear systems with bounded controls. Null controllability of a system refers to the possibility of steering its state to the origin in a finite time by an appropriate choice of the admissible control input. If the system is linear and is controllable, then any state can be steered to any other location, for example, the origin, in the state space in a finite time by a control input. This implies that any controllable linear system is null controllable from any point in the state space. The control inputs that are used to drive certain states to the origin, however, might have to be large in magnitude. As a result, when the control input is limited by the actuator saturation, a linear controllable system might not be globally null controllable. In this situation, it is important to identify the set of all the states that can be steered to the origin with the bounded controls delivered by the actuators. This set is referred to as the null controllable region and is denoted as C

In control theory, models of physical processes, such as systems of differential equations, are usually checked against specifications, such as stability and set invariance. In formal methods, rich specifications, such as languages and formulae of temporal logics, are checked against models of software programs and digital circuits, such as finite transition graphs. With the development and integration of cyber physical and safety critical systems, there is an increasing need for computational tools for verification and control of complex systems from rich, temporal logic specifications. The formal verification and synthesis problems have been shown to be undecidable even for very simple classes of infinitespace continuous and hybrid systems. However, provably correct but conservative approaches, in which the satisfaction of a property by a dynamical system is implied by the satisfaction of the property by a finite over-approximation (abstraction) of the system, have received a lot of attention in recent years. Some classes of systems allowing for computationally efficient verification and control from temporal logic specifications are reviewed. For continuous and discrete-time linear systems and continuous-time multi-linear systems, it is shown that finite abstractions can be constructed through polyhedral operations only. By using techniques from model checking and automata games, this allows for verification and control from specifications given as Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formulae over linear predicates in the state variables. A connection between the existence of Lyapunov functions and finite bisimulations is established for discrete-time linear and switched linear systems. Finally, optimality and correctness requirements are combined in a model predictive approach to generate control strategies for discrete-time linear systems. The usefulness of these computational tools is illustrated with various examples such as verification and synthesis of biological circuits in synthetic biology and motion planning and control in robotics.

SUMMARY The LQ+ problem, i.e. the finite-horizon linear quadratic optimal control problem with nonnegative state constraints, is studied for positive linear systems in continuous time and in discrete time. Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions are obtained by using the maximum principle. These conditions lead to a computational method for the solution of the LQ+ problem by means of a corresponding Hamiltonian system. In addition, the necessary and sufficient conditions are proved for the LQ+-optimal control to be given by the standard LQ-optimal state feedback law. Then sufficient conditions are established for the positivity of the LQ-optimal closed-loop system. In particular, such conditions are obtained for the problem of minimal energy control with penalization of the final state. Moreover, a positivity criterion for the LQ-optimal closed-loop system is derived for positive discrete-time systems with a positively invertible (dynamics) generator. The main results are illustrated by numerical examples. Copyright q 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article presents the central finite-dimensional H ∞ controller for linear time-varying systems with unknown parameters, that is suboptimal for a given threshold γ with respect to a modified Bolza–Meyer quadratic criterion including the attenuation control term with the opposite sign. In contrast to the previously obtained results, this article reduces the original H ∞ controller problem to the corresponding H 2 controller problem, using the technique proposed in Doyle et al. [Doyle, J.C., Glover, K., Khargonekar, P.P., and Francis, B.A. (1989), ‘State-space Solutions to Standard H 2 and H Infinity Control Problems’, IEEE Transactions Automatic Control, 34, 831–847]. This article yields the central suboptimal H ∞ controller for linear systems with unknown parameters in a closed finite-dimensional form, based on the corresponding H 2 controller obtained in Basin and Calderon-Alvarez [Basin, M.V., and Calderon-Alvarez, D. (2008), ‘Optimal LQG Controller for Linear Systems with Unknown Parameters’, Journal of The Franklin Institute, 345, 293–302]. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify performance of the designed central suboptimal controller for uncertain linear systems with unknown parameters against the conventional central suboptimal H ∞ controller for linear systems with exactly known parameter values.

In this chapter, the sliding mode control (SMC) design for a class of continuous-time linear uncertain systems is considered based on the parametric approaches utilizing the Lyapunov (or Riccati-like) inequalities. SMC for the continuous-time linear systems is one of the well-known issues in control theory. However, this chapter addresses a new aspect of SMC for linear uncertain systems and establishes a systematic procedure to design a sliding hyperplane having multiple design objectives.

Preface: Volume 59, Issue 4

In present work we consider a multidimensional linear system with additive inputs (controls) and noise governed by a Brownian motion. We allow parameters of system to change in time. In addition we assume that exact form of coefficients is not known, rather intervals within which these coefficients fluctuate are given. In addition, we do not know exact state of system, rather we observe output correlated with this state. The set of allowable controls are feedback controls based on observation of output and an ideal model dynamics. With each control we associate a performance functional characterizing the quality of tracking process and objective is to construct a robust feedback control which minimizes maximal performance functional within class of systems with nonstochastic coefficients fluctuating in same intervals as those of our problem.

In this paper, we study optimal LQG tracking control problems for linear continuous-time hybrid systems. We adopt an approach to prepare some candidates of mode distributions and minimize value functions at each time for the systems and performance indices. By the approach, system states and mode distributions are simultaneously optimized so that the performance indices are minimized for available information of reference signals. We consider optimization problems for averaged systems and averaged performance indices throughout mode distributions. Finally we give numerical examples and verify that we can obtain both optimal tracking performance and optimal candidate of mode distributions by the algorithm presented in this paper.

ABSTRACT:(Labelled) transition systems are relatively common in theoretical computer science, chiefly as vehicles for operational semantics. The first part of this paper constructs a hierarchy of canonical transition systems and associated maps, aiming to give a strongly extensional theory of transition systems, where any two points with equivalent behaviors are identified. The cornerstone of the development is a notion of convergence in arbitrary transition systems, generalizing the idea of finite (n‐step) approximations to a given point. In particular, our canonical transition systems are also uniform spaces.The resulting hierarchy has very rich combinatorial (and topological) structure, and a lot of the first part of the paper is devoted to its study. We also discuss fixed points in this framework.In the second part of the paper, we show how to obtain a model of set theory with Aczel's Anti‐Foundation Axiom (AFA) from canonical transition systems constructed earlier. We study further the structure of the model thus obtained, and also give a few more abstract results, concerning consistency and independence in the presence of AFA.

As with a continuous-time linear system, the predictor state feedback law for a discrete-time linear system with input delay is the product of a feedback gain matrix with the predicted state at a future time instant ahead of the current time instant by the amount of the delay, which is the sum of the zero input solution and the zero state solution of the system. The zero state solution for a discrete-time system is a finite summation that involves past input. The zero input solution is the product of the transition matrix and the initial state. The truncated predictor feedback (TPF), which results from discarding the finite summation part of the predictor feedback law, reduces implementation complexity. The delay independent TPF law further discards the delay-dependent transition matrix in the TPF law and is thus robust to unknown delays. It was pointed out in Lin (Commun. Inf. Syst. 7(3), 227–264 (2007)) and Zhou and Lin (IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I Regular Papers 58(11), 2741–2754 (2011)) that such a delay independent TPF law stabilizes a discrete-time linear system with all its poles at z = 1 or inside the unit circle no matter how large the delay is.

OBSERVABILITY OF DISCRETE TIME LINEAR SWITCHING SYSTEMS1

This article deals with the problem of optimal static output feedback control of linear periodic systems in continuous time, for which a continuous-time approach, which allows to deal with both stable and unstable open loop systems, is presented. The proposed approach is tested on the problem of designing attitude control laws for a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite on the basis of feedback from a triaxial magnetometer and a set of high-precision gyros. Simulation results are used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed strategy and to evaluate its performance.

A probabilistic Boolean network (PBN) is a discrete-time system composed of a collection of Boolean networks between which the PBN switches in a stochastic manner. This article focuses on the study of quotients of PBNs. Given a PBN and an equivalence relation on its state set, we consider a probabilistic transition system that is generated by the PBN; the resulting quotient transition system then automatically captures the quotient behavior of this PBN. We therefore describe a method for obtaining a probabilistic Boolean system that generates the transitions of the quotient transition system. Applications of this quotient description are discussed, and it is shown that for PBNs, controller synthesis can be performed easily by first controlling a quotient system and then lifting the control law back to the original network. A biological example is given to show the usefulness of the developed results.

Simulations and bisimulations are ubiquitous in the study of concurrent systems and modal logics of various types. Besides classical relational transition systems, relevant system types include, for instance, probabilistic, weighted, neighbourhood-based, and game-based systems. Universal coalgebra abstracts system types in this sense as set functors. Notions of (bi)simulation then arise by extending the functor to act on relations in a suitable manner, turning it into what may be termed a relator. We contribute to the study of relators in the broadest possible sense, in particular in relation to their induced notions of (bi)similarity. Specifically, (i) we show that every functor that preserves a very restricted type of pullbacks (termed 1/4-iso pullbacks) admits a sound and complete notion of bisimulation induced by the coBarr relator; (ii) we establish equivalences between properties of relators and closure properties of the induced notion of (bi)simulation, showing in particular that the full set of expected closure properties requires the relator to be a lax extension, and that soundness of (bi)simulations requires preservation of diagonals; and (iii) we show that functors preserving inverse images admit a greatest lax extension. In a concluding case study, we apply (iii) to obtain a novel highly permissive notion of twisted bisimulation on labelled transition systems.