Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

RoboCert: Property Specification in Robotics

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Formal Methods and Software Engineering (ICFEM 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13478))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

RoboStar is a toolkit for model-based development using a domain-specific notation, RoboChart, with enriched UML-like state machines and a custom component model. We present RoboCert: a novel notation, based on UML sequence diagrams, which facilitates the specification of properties over RoboChart components. With RoboCert, we can express properties of a robotic system in a user-friendly, idiomatic manner. RoboCert specifications can be existential or universal, include timing notions such as deadlines and budgets, and both safety and liveness properties. Our work is faithful to UML where it can be, but presents significant extensions to fit the robotics application needs. RoboCert comes with tooling support for modelling and verification by model checking, and formal semantics in tock-CSP, the discrete-time variant of CSP.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://robostar.cs.york.ac.uk/case_studies/.

  2. 2.

    robostar.cs.york.ac.uk.

  3. 3.

    Nondeterministic waits, taking range expressions, are planned for future revisions.

  4. 4.

    https://github.com/UoY-RoboStar/robocert-evaluation.

  5. 5.

    https://mermaid-js.github.io.

References

  1. Autili, M., Inverardi, P., Pelliccione, P.: Graphical scenarios for specifying temporal properties: an automated approach. Autom. Softw. Eng. 14, 293–340 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-007-0012-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Baxter, J., Ribeiro, P., Cavalcanti, A.L.C.: Sound reasoning in tock-CSP. Acta Inform. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00236-020-00394-3, April 2021

  3. Buchanan, E., Pomfret, A., Timmis, J.: Dynamic task partitioning for foraging robot swarms. In: Dorigo, M., et al. (eds.) ANTS 2016. LNCS, vol. 9882, pp. 113–124. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44427-7_10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Damm, W., Harel, D.: LSCs: breathing life into message sequence charts. Formal Methods Syst. Des. 19(1), 45–80 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011227529550

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Gibson-Robinson, T., Armstrong, P., Boulgakov, A., Roscoe, A.W.: FDR3 — a modern refinement checker for CSP. In: Ábrahám, E., Havelund, K. (eds.) TACAS 2014. LNCS, vol. 8413, pp. 187–201. Springer, Heidelberg (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54862-8_13

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Grosu, R., Smolka, S.A.: Safety-liveness semantics for UML 2.0 sequence diagrams. In: 5th ACSD, pp. 6–14 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACSD.2005.31

  7. Haugen, Ø., Husa, K.E., Runde, R.K., Stølen, K.: Why timed sequence diagrams require three-event semantics. In: Leue, S., Systä, T.J. (eds.) Scenarios: Models, Transformations and Tools. LNCS, vol. 3466, pp. 1–25. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11495628_1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Haugen, Ø., Stølen, K.: STAIRS – steps to analyze interactions with refinement semantics. In: Stevens, P., Whittle, J., Booch, G. (eds.) UML 2003. LNCS, vol. 2863, pp. 388–402. Springer, Heidelberg (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45221-8_33

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Jacobs, J., Simpson, A.: On a process algebraic representation of sequence diagrams. In: Canal, C., Idani, A. (eds.) SEFM 2014. LNCS, vol. 8938, pp. 71–85. Springer, Cham (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15201-1_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Lima, L., Iyoda, J., Sampaio, A.: A formal semantics for sequence diagrams and a strategy for system analysis. In: MODELSWARD, pp. 317–324. SciTePress (2014). https://doi.org/10.5220/0004711603170324

  11. Lindoso, W., Nogueira, S.C., Domingues, R., Lima, L.: Visual specification of properties for robotic designs. In: Campos, S., Minea, M. (eds.) SBMF 2021. LNCS, vol. 13130, pp. 34–52. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92137-8_3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Micskei, Z., Waeselynck, H.: The many meanings of UML 2 sequence diagrams: a survey. Softw. Syst. Model. 10(4), 489–514 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-010-0157-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Miyazawa, A., Ribeiro, P., Li, W., Cavalcanti, A., Timmis, J., Woodcock, J.: RoboChart: modelling and verification of the functional behaviour of robotic applications. Softw. Syst. Model. 18(5), 3097–3149 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-018-00710-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Petre, M.: UML in practice. In: ICSE, pp. 722–731. IEEE Press (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2013.6606618

  15. Roscoe, A.W.: Understanding Concurrent Systems. Texts in Computer Science, Springer, London (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-258-0

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Ye, K., Cavalcanti, A., Foster, S., Miyazawa, A., Woodcock, J.: Probabilistic modelling and verification using RoboChart and PRISM. Softw. Syst. Model. 21(2), 667–716 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10270-021-00916-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Message Sequence Chart (MSC). Standard, ITU-T, February 2011. https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-Z.120-201102-I/en

  18. OMG Unified Modeling Language. Standard, Object Management Group, December 2017. https://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.5.1/PDF

  19. RoboCert Reference Manual. Report, RoboStar, May 2022. https://robostar.cs.york.ac.uk/publications/reports/robocert.pdf

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been funded by the UK EPSRC Grants EP/M025756/1, EP/R025479/1, and EP/V026801/2, and by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering Grant No CiET1718/45. We are also grateful to members of the RoboStar (www.cs.york.ac.uk/robostar/) group for several useful discussions; in particular, Pedro Ribeiro and Alvaro Miyazawa have given many insights as to how to best integrate RoboCert with the RoboStar ecosystem.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of York, Deramore Lane, Heslington, York, YO10 5GH, UK

    Matt Windsor & Ana Cavalcanti

Authors
  1. Matt Windsor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ana Cavalcanti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Matt Windsor or Ana Cavalcanti .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Adrian Riesco

  2. East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

    Min Zhang

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Windsor, M., Cavalcanti, A. (2022). RoboCert: Property Specification in Robotics. In: Riesco, A., Zhang, M. (eds) Formal Methods and Software Engineering. ICFEM 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13478. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17244-1_23

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17244-1_23

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-17243-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-17244-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation