From Natural Projection to Partial Model Checking and Back

Abstract

Specification decomposition is a theoretically interesting and practically relevant problem for which two approaches were independently developed by the control theory and verification communities: natural projection and partial model checking. In this paper we show that, under reasonable assumptions, natural projection reduces to partial model checking and, when cast in a common setting, the two are equivalent. Aside from their theoretical interest, our results build a bridge whereby the control theory community can reuse algorithms and results developed by the verification community. In addition, we present an algorithm and a tool for the partial model checking of finite-state automata that can be used as an alternative to natural projection.

Model checking and model synthesisfrom partial models: a logic-based perspective

“…-Conceptually closely related earlier works are: [21], proposing the use of partial structures to model multi-agent systems where the agents possess only partial information, gradually completed as the knowledge grows, and [22], taking an algebraic approach to the completion of partial first-order models, again representing partial information about the actual world. -A technique called 'partial model checking' was introduced in [2] (see also, [3], [12]) for verifying concurrent systems by gradually removing concurrent components and then reducing the specification, until completely checked, in order to avoid the state explosion problem. This idea is only implicitly and technically related to the MCPM problem discussed here.…”