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From Natural Language Requirements to the Verification of Programmable Logic Controllers: Integrating FRET into PLCverif

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NASA Formal Methods (NFM 2023)

Abstract

PLCverif is an actively developed project at CERN, enabling the formal verification of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) programs in critical systems. In this paper, we present our work on improving the formal requirements specification experience in PLCverif through the use of natural language. To this end, we integrate NASA’s FRET, a formal requirement elicitation and authoring tool, into PLCverif. FRET is used to specify formal requirements in structured natural language, which automatically translates into temporal logic formulae. FRET’s output is then directly used by PLCverif for verification purposes. We discuss practical challenges that PLCverif users face when authoring requirements and the FRET features that help alleviate these problems. We present the new requirement formalization workflow and report our experience using it on two critical CERN case studies.

Z. Ádám and I. D. Lopez-Miguel—Work performed while at CERN.

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References

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Correspondence to Zsófia Ádám , Ignacio D. Lopez-Miguel , Anastasia Mavridou or Borja Fernández Adiego .

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© 2023 This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign copyright protection may apply

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Ádám, Z. et al. (2023). From Natural Language Requirements to the Verification of Programmable Logic Controllers: Integrating FRET into PLCverif. In: Rozier, K.Y., Chaudhuri, S. (eds) NASA Formal Methods. NFM 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13903. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33170-1_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33170-1_21

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-33170-1

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