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It's All About Coordination pp 189–207Cite as

From Soft Agents to Soft Component Automata and Back

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 10865))

Abstract

Rewriting Logic and Automata are complimentary approaches for developing executable models of concurrent/distributed systems that can be analyzed by prototyping, and multiple methods of model-checking. A joint project between my group at SRI and Farhad’s group at CWI is developing formal methods to diagnose the cause of undesired behavior of autonomous (cyber physical) systems operating in unpredictable environments. CWI is working on theory development based on automata, exploring composition mechanisms in multiple dimensions, and developing logic that supports reasoning about compositionality. The SRI work is based on rewriting logic and is focused on methods for system specification and model-checking in the context of faults and environmental threats. The two approaches share a common feature, namely the assignment of preferences to possible actions to model locally robust adaptive behavior. Preferences are elements of constraint semirings (soft constraints), structures that provide operations for comparison and composition.

In this paper we explore the similarities, differences and synergies highlighting the insights that arise by pursuing complimentary approaches.

The work was partially supported by ONR grant N00014-15-1-2202.

This paper is dedicated to Farhad on the occasion of his retirement from CWI. Farhad is both a colleague and a friend. The paper is a start towards realizing the potential synergy between Reo and Maude that underlies much of our collaboration. Here’s to the beginning of a new phase in a research agenda full of exciting ideas, and also an opportunity to explore new ideas and passions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Recall that, in \(\mathbb {W}\), higher values reflect a lower preference (a higher weight); thus, \(\mathsf {charge}\) is preferred over \(\mathsf {discharge}_1\).

  2. 2.

    , are lifted pointwise to action sequences.

  3. 3.

    We chose this minimal rule set to reduce the search space by minimizing interleaving that is not important for the properties of interest.

  4. 4.

    The patrol bot case study is based on an unpublished case study consisting of a Maude specification of the SA framework and modules specifying patrol bots that are used by the project to test ideas.

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  1. SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA

    Carolyn Talcott

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  1. Carolyn Talcott
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Correspondence to Carolyn Talcott .

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  1. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Frank de Boer

  2. Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Marcello Bonsangue

  3. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jan Rutten

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Talcott, C. (2018). From Soft Agents to Soft Component Automata and Back. In: de Boer, F., Bonsangue, M., Rutten, J. (eds) It's All About Coordination. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10865. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90089-6_13

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