Recently there has been a significant effort to handle quantitative properties in formal verification and synthesis. While weighted automata over finite and infinite words provide a natural and flexible framework to express quantitative properties, perhaps surprisingly, some basic system properties such as average response time cannot be expressed using weighted automata, nor in any other know decidable formalism. In this work, we introduce nested weighted automata as a natural extension of weighted automata which makes it possible to express important quantitative properties such as average response time. In nested weighted automata, a master automaton spins off and collects results from weighted slave automata, each of which computes a quantity along a finite portion of an infinite word. Nested weighted automata can be viewed as the quantitative analogue of monitor automata, which are used in run-time verification. We establish an almost complete decidability picture for the basic decision problems about nested weighted automata, and illustrate their applicability in several domains. In particular, nested weighted automata can be used to decide average response time properties.
Register automata. Another related model for specifying quantitative properties are @cite_19 , which are parametrized by cost functions. The main differences between @cite_19 and nested weighted automata are as follows: (i) register automata are over finite words, whereas we consider infinite words, and (ii) we consider nested control of automata, whereas register automaton are non-nested. As a result, both in terms of expressiveness and decidability results nested weighted automata are very different from register automata. For example, the emptiness of register automata with max and sum value functions is decidable, while we show emptiness to be undecidable for deterministic nested weighted automata with these value functions.
@cite_19
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Weighted automata map input words to numerical values. Applications of weighted automata include formal verification of quantitative properties, as well as text, speech, and image processing. In the 90's, Krob studied the decidability of problems on rational series, which strongly relate to weighted automata. In particular, it follows from Krob's results that the universality problem (that is, deciding whether the values of all words are below some threshold) is decidable for weighted automata with weights in N ∪ ∞ , and that the equality problem is undecidable when the weights are in N ∪ ∞ . In this paper we continue the study of the borders of decidability in weighted automata, describe alternative and direct proofs of the above results, and tighten them further. Unlike the proofs of Krob, which are algebraic in their nature, our proofs stay in the terrain of state machines, and the reduction is from the halting problem of a two-counter machine. This enables us to significantly simplify Krob's reasoning and strengthen the results to apply already to a very simple class of automata: all the states are accepting, there are no initial nor final weights, and all the weights are from the set -1, 0, 1 . The fact we work directly with automata enables us to tighten also the decidability results and to show that the universality problem for weighted automata with weights in N ∪ ∞ , and in fact even with weights in Q≥0 ∪ ∞ , is PSPACE-complete. Our results thus draw a sharper picture about the decidability of decision problems for weighted automata, in both the front of equality vs. universality and the front of the N ∪ ∞ vs. the Z ∪ ∞ domains. Weighted automata are a generalisation of non-deterministic automata where each transition, in addition to an input letter, has also a quantity expressing the weight (e.g. cost or probability) of its execution. As for non-deterministic automata, their behaviours can be expressed in terms of either (weighted) bisimilarity or (weighted) language equivalence. Coalgebras provide a categorical framework for the uniform study of state-based systems and their behaviours. In this work, we show that coalgebras can suitably model weighted automata in two different ways: coalgebras on Set (the category of sets and functions) characterise weighted bisimilarity, while coalgebras on Vect (the category of vector spaces and linear maps) characterise weighted language equivalence. Relying on the second characterisation, we show three different procedures for computing weighted language equivalence. The first one consists in a generalisation of the usual partition refinement algorithm for ordinary automata. The second one is the backward version of the first one. The third procedure relies on a syntactic representation of rational weighted languages. We introduce new classes of weighted automata on words. Equipped with pebbles and a two-way mechanism, they go beyond the class of recognizable formal power series, but capture a weighted version of first-order logic with bounded transitive closure. In contrast to previous work, this logic allows for unrestricted use of universal quantification. Our main result states that pebble weighted automata, nested weighted automata, and this weighted logic are expressively equivalent. We also give new logical characterizations of the recognizable series. We propose the model of nested words for representation of data with both a linear ordering and a hierarchically nested matching of items. Examples of data with such dual linear-hierarchical structure include executions of structured programs, annotated linguistic data, and HTML XML documents. Nested words generalize both words and ordered trees, and allow both word and tree operations. We define nested word automata—finite-state acceptors for nested words, and show that the resulting class of regular languages of nested words has all the appealing theoretical properties that the classical regular word languages enjoys: deterministic nested word automata are as expressive as their nondeterministic counterparts; the class is closed under union, intersection, complementation, concatenation, Kleene-*, prefixes, and language homomorphisms; membership, emptiness, language inclusion, and language equivalence are all decidable; and definability in monadic second order logic corresponds exactly to finite-state recognizability. We also consider regular languages of infinite nested words and show that the closure properties, MSO-characterization, and decidability of decision problems carry over. The linear encodings of nested words give the class of visibly pushdown languages of words, and this class lies between balanced languages and deterministic context-free languages. We argue that for algorithmic verification of structured programs, instead of viewing the program as a context-free language over words, one should view it as a regular language of nested words (or equivalently, a visibly pushdown language), and this would allow model checking of many properties (such as stack inspection, pre-post conditions) that are not expressible in existing specification logics. We also study the relationship between ordered trees and nested words, and the corresponding automata: while the analysis complexity of nested word automata is the same as that of classical tree automata, they combine both bottom-up and top-down traversals, and enjoy expressiveness and succinctness benefits over tree automata. Weighted finite automata are classical nondeterministic finite automata in which the transitions carry weights. These weights may model, for example, the cost involved when executing a transition, the resources or time needed for this, or the probability or reliability of its successful execution. Weights can also be added to classical automata with infinite state sets like pushdown automata, and this extension constitutes the general concept of weighted automata. Since their introduction in the 1960s they have stimulated research in related areas of theoretical computer science, including formal language theory, algebra, logic, and discrete structures. Moreover, weighted automata and weighted context-free grammars have found application in natural-language processing, speech recognition, and digital image compression. This book covers all the main aspects of weighted automata and formal power series methods, ranging from theory to applications. The contributors are the leading experts in their respective areas, and each chapter presents a detailed survey of the state of the art and pointers to future research. The chapters in Part I cover the foundations of the theory of weighted automata, specifically addressing semirings, power series, and fixed point theory. Part II investigates different concepts of weighted recognizability. Part III examines alternative types of weighted automata and various discrete structures other than words. Finally, Part IV deals with applications of weighted automata, including digital image compression, fuzzy languages, model checking, and natural-language processing. Computer scientists and mathematicians will find this book an excellent survey and reference volume, and it will also be a valuable resource for students exploring this exciting research area. We propose a deterministic model for associating costs with strings that is parameterized by operations of interest (such as addition, scaling, and minimum), a notion of regularity that provides a yardstick to measure expressiveness, and study decision problems and theoretical properties of resulting classes of cost functions. Our definition of regularity relies on the theory of string-to-tree transducers, and allows associating costs with events that are conditioned on regular properties of future events. Our model of cost register automata allows computation of regular functions using multiple "write-only" registers whose values can be combined using the allowed set of operations. We show that the classical shortest-path algorithms as well as the algorithms designed for computing discounted costs can be adapted for solving the min-cost problems for the more general classes of functions specified in our model. Cost register automata with the operations of minimum and increment give a deterministic model that is equivalent to weighted automata, an extensively studied nondeterministic model, and this connection results in new insights and new open problems. We study bisimulation and minimization for weighted automata, relying on a geometrical representation of the model, linear weighted automata ( lwa ). In a lwa , the state-space of the automaton is represented by a vector space, and the transitions and weighting maps by linear morphisms over this vector space. Weighted bisimulations are represented by sub-spaces that are invariant under the transition morphisms. We show that the largest bisimulation coincides with weighted language equivalence, can be computed by a geometrical version of partition refinement and that the corresponding quotient gives rise to the minimal weighted-language equivalence automaton. Relations to Larsen and Skou's probabilistic bisimulation and to classical results in Automata Theory are also discussed. We describe an automata-theoretic approach for the competitive analysis of online algorithms. Our approach is based on weighted automata, which assign to each input word a cost in R≥0. By relating the "unbounded look ahead" of optimal offline algorithms with nondeterminism, and relating the "no look ahead" of online algorithms with determinism, we are able to solve problems about the competitive ratio of online algorithms, and the memory they require, by reducing them to questions about determinization and approximated determinization of weighted automata. Automata-theoretic representations have proven useful in the automatic and exact analysis of computing systems. We propose a new semantical mapping of π-Calculus processes into place transition Petri nets. Our translation exploits the connections created by restricted names and can yield finite nets even for processes with unbounded name and unbounded process creation. The property of structural stationarity characterises the processes mapped to finite nets. We provide exact conditions for structural stationarity using novel characteristic functions. As application of the theory, we identify a rich syntactic class of structurally stationary processes, called finite handler processes. Our Petri net translation facilitates the automatic verification of a case study modelled in this class. Abstract In the framework of distributed network computing , it is known that not all Turing-decidable predicates on labeled networks can be decided locally whenever the computing entities are Turing machines (TM). This holds even if nodes are running non-deterministic Turing machines (NTM). In contrast, we show that every Turing-decidable predicate on labeled networks can be decided locally if nodes are running alternating Turing machines (ATM). More specifically, we show that, for every such predicate, there is a local algorithm for ATMs, with at most two alternations, that decides whether the actual labeled network satisfies that predicate. To this aim, we define a hierarchy of classes of decision tasks, where the lowest level contains tasks solvable with TMs, the first level those solvable with NTMs, and the level k > 1 contains those tasks solvable with ATMs with k − 1 alternations. We characterize the entire hierarchy, and show that it collapses in the second level. Motivated by formal models recently proposed in the context of XML, we study automata and logics on strings over infinite alphabets. These are conservative extensions of classical automata and logics defining the regular languages on finite alphabets. Specifically, we consider register and pebble automata, and extensions of first-order logic and monadic second-order logic. For each type of automaton we consider one-way and two-way variants, as well as deterministic, nondeterministic, and alternating control. We investigate the expressiveness and complexity of the automata and their connection to the logics, as well as standard decision problems. Some of our results answer open questions of Kaminski and Francez on register automata. Abstract We present an approximation technique, that can render real-time model checking of safety and universal path properties more efficient. It is beneficial, when loops lead to repetition of control situations. Basically we augment a timed automata model with carefully selected extra transitions. This increases the size of the state-space, but potentially decreases the number of symbolic states to be explored by orders of magnitude. We give a formal definition of a timed automata formalism, enriched with basic data types, hand-shake synchronization, urgency, and committed locations. We prove by means of a trace semantics, that if a safety property can be established in the augmented model, it also holds for the original model. We extend our technique to a richer set of properties, that can be decided via a set of traces (universal path properties). In order for universal path properties to carry over to the original model, the semantics of the timed automata formalism is formulated relative to the applied augmentation. Our technique is particularly useful in systems, where a scheduler dictates repetition of control over elapsing time. As a typical example we mention translations of LEGO® RCX™ programs to U ppaal models, where the Round-Robin scheduler is a static entity. We allow scheduler and associated tasks to “park”, until some timing or environmental conditions are met. We apply our technique on a brick-sorter model for a safety property and report run-time data. We introduce a weighted logic with discounting and we establish the Buchi-Elgot theorem for weighted automata over finite words and arbitrary commutative semirings. Then we investigate Buchi and Muller automata with discounting over the max-plus and the min-plus semiring. We show their expressive equivalence with weighted MSO-sentences with discounting. In this case our logic has a purely syntactic definition. For the finite case, we obtain a purely syntactically defined weighted logic if the underlying semiring is additively locally finite. We characterize the infinite words determined by one-way stack automata. An infinite language L determines an infinite word alpha if every string in L is a prefix of alpha. If L is regular or context-free, it is known that alpha must be ultimately periodic. We extend this result to the class of languages recognized by one-way nondeterministic checking stack automata (1-NCSA). We then consider stronger classes of stack automata and show that they determine a class of infinite words which we call multilinear. We show that every multilinear word can be written in a form which is amenable to parsing. Finally, we consider the class of one-way multihead deterministic finite automata (1:multi-DFA). We show that every multilinear word can be determined by some 1:multi-DFA, but that there exist infinite words determined by 1:multi-DFA which are not multilinear. We investigate extensions of Alur and Dill's timed automata, based on the possibility to update the clocks in a more elaborate way than simply reset them to zero. We call these automata updatable timed automata. They form an undecidable class of models, in the sense that emptiness checking is not decidable. However, using an extension of the region graph construction, we exhibit interesting decidable subclasses. In a surprising way, decidability depends on the nature of the clock constraints which are used, diagonal-free or not, whereas these constraints play identical roles in timed automata. We thus describe in a quite precise way the thin frontier between decidable and undecidable classes of updatable timed automata.We also study the expressive power of updatable timed automata. It turns out that any up-datable automaton belonging to some decidable subclass can be effectively transformed into an equivalent timed automaton without updates but with silent transitions. The transformation suffers from an enormous combinatorics blow-up which seems unavoidable. Therefore, updatable timed automata appear to be a concise model for representing and analyzing large classes of timed systems. The automata-theoretic approach to linear temporal logic uses the theory of automata as a unifying paradigm for program specification, verification, and synthesis. Both programs and specifications are in essence descriptions of computations. These computations can be viewed as words over some alphabet. Thus, programs and specifications can be viewed as descriptions of languages over some alphabet. The automata-theoretic perspective considers the relationships between programs and their specifications as relationships between languages. By translating programs and specifications to automata, questions about programs and their specifications can be reduced to questions about automata. More specifically, questions such as satisfiability of specifications and correctness of programs with respect to their specifications can be reduced to questions such as nonemptiness and containment of automata. A well known but incorrect piece of functional programming folklore is that ML expressions can be efficiently typed in polynomial time. In probing the truth of that folklore, various researchers, including Wand, Buneman, Kanellakis, and Mitchell, constructed simple counterexamples consisting of typable ML programs having length n , with principal types having O(2 cn ) distinct type variables and length O(2 2cn ). When the types associated with these ML constructions were represented as directed acyclic graphs, their sizes grew as O(2 cn ). The folklore was even more strongly contradicted by the recent result of Kanellakis and Mitchell that simply deciding whether or not an ML expression is typable is PSPACE-hard. We improve the latter result, showing that deciding ML typability is DEXPTIME-hard. As Kanellakis and Mitchell have shown containment in DEXPTIME, the problem is DEXPTIME-complete. The proof of DEXPTIME-hardness is carried out via a generic reduction: it consists of a very straightforward simulation of any deterministic one-tape Turing machine M with input k running in O ( c |k| ) time by a polynomial-sized ML formula P M,k , such that M accepts k iff P M,k is typable. The simulation of the transition function δ of the Turing Machine is realized uniquely through terms in the lambda calculus without the use of the polymorphic let construct. We use let for two purposes only: to generate an exponential amount of blank tape for the Turing Machine simulation to begin, and to compose an exponential number of applications of the ML formula simulating state transition. It is purely the expressive power of ML polymorphism to succinctly express function composition which results in a proof of DEXPTIME-hardness. We conjecture that lower bounds on deciding typability for extensions to the typed lambda calculus can be regarded precisely in terms of this expressive capacity for succinct function composition. To further understand this lower bound, we relate it to the problem of proving equality of type variables in a system of type equations generated from an ML expression with let-polymorphism. We show that given an oracle for solving this problem, deciding typability would be in PSPACE, as would be the actual computation of the principal type of the expression, were it indeed typable. We study efficient translations of Regular Linear Temporal Logic ( ) into automata on infinite words. is a temporal logic that fuses Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) with regular expressions, extending its expressive power to all @math -regular languages. The first contribution of this paper is a novel bottom up translation from into alternating parity automata of linear size that requires only colors @math , @math and @math . Moreover, the resulting automata enjoy the stratified internal structure of hesitant automata. Our translation is defined inductively for every operator, and does not require an upfront transformation of the expression into a normal form. Our construction builds at every step two automata: one equivalent to the formula and another to its complement. Inspired by this construction, our second contribution is to extend with new operators, including universal sequential composition, that enrich the logic with duality laws and negation normal forms. The third contribution is a ranking translation of the resulting alternating automata into non-deterministic automata. To provide this efficient translation we introduce the notion of stratified rankings, and show how the translation is optimal for the LTL fragment of the logic. Over the last years there has been an increasing research effort directed towards the automatic verification of infinite state systems, such as timed automata, hybrid automata, data-independent systems, relational automata, Petri nets, lossy channel systems, context-free and push-down processes. We present a method for deciding reachability properties of networks of timed processes. Such a network consists of an arbitrary set of identical timed automata, each with a single real-valued clock. Using a standard reduction from safety properties to reachability properties, we can use our algorithm to decide general safety properties of timed networks. To our knowledge, this is the first decidability result concerning verification of systems that are infinite-state in "two dimensions": they contain an arbitrary set of (identical) processes, and they use infinite data-structures, viz real-valued clocks. We illustrate our method by showing how it can be used to automatically verify Fischer's protocol, a timer-based protocol for enforcing mutual exclusion among an arbitrary number of processes.Finally, we show undecidability of the recurrent state problem: given a state in a timed network, check whether there is a computation of the network visiting the state infinitely often. This implies undecidability of model checking for any temporal logic which is sufficiently expressive to encode the recurrent state problem, such as PTL, CTL, etc. The computational power of networks of small resource-limited mobile agents is explored. Two new models of computation based on pairwise interactions of finite-state agents in populations of finite but unbounded size are defined. With a fairness condition on interactions, the concept of stable computation of a function or predicate is defined. Protocols are given that stably compute any predicate in the class definable by formulas of Presburger arithmetic, which includes Boolean combinations of threshold-k, majority, and equivalence modulo m. All stably computable predicates are shown to be in NL. Assuming uniform random sampling of interacting pairs yields the model of conjugating automata. Any counter machine with O (1) counters of capacity O (n) can be simulated with high probability by a conjugating automaton in a population of size n. All predicates computable with high probability in this model are shown to be in P; they can also be computed by a randomized logspace machine in exponential time. Several open problems and promising future directions are discussed.