We consider quantitative notions of parity automaton and parity game aimed at modelling resource-aware behaviour, and study (memory-full) strategies for exhibiting accepting runs that require a minimum amount of initial resources, respectively for winning a game with minimum initial resources. We also show how such strategies can be simplified to consist of only two types of moves: the former aimed at increasing resources, the latter aimed at satisfying the acceptance condition.
An average-time game is played on the infinite graph of configurations of a finite timed automaton. The two players, Min and Max, construct an infinite run of the automaton by taking turns to perform a timed transition. Player Min wants to minimise the average time per transition and player Max wants to maximise it. A solution of average-time games is presented using a reduction to average-price game on a finite graph. A direct consequence is an elementary proof of determinacy for average-time games. This complements our results for reachability-time games and partially solves a problem posed …
Two-player zero-sum games are a well-established model for synthesising controllers that optimise some performance criterion. In such games one player represents the controller, while the other describes the (adversarial) environment, and controller synthesis corresponds to computing the optimal strategies of the controller for a given criterion. Asarin and Maler initiated the study of quantitative games on (non-probabilistic) timed automata by synthesising controllers which optimise the time to reach a final state. The correctness and termination of their approach was dependent on exploiting …
This volume contains the proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF), held in Naples (Italy) from September 6th to 8th, 2012. GandALF was founded by a number of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. Even though the idea of the symposium emerged within the Ital…
This volume contains the proceedings of the 12th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2021). The aim of GandALF 2021 symposium is to bring together researchers from academia and industry which are actively working in the fields of Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The idea is to cover an ample spectrum of themes, ranging from theory to applications, and stimulate cross-fertilization.
We consider infinite-state Attacker-Defender games with reachability objectives. The results of the paper are twofold. Firstly we prove a new language-theoretic result for weighted automata on infinite words and show its encoding into the framework of Attacker-Defender games. Secondly we use this novel concept to prove undecidability for checking existence of a winning strategy in several low-dimensional mathematical games including vector reachability games, word games and braid games.
This volume contains the proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2022). The aim of GandALF 2022 symposium is to bring together researchers from academia and industry which are actively working in the fields of Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification. The idea is to cover an ample spectrum of themes, ranging from theory to applications, and stimulate cross-fertilization.
Small model property is an important property that implies decidability. We show that the small model size is directly related to some important resources in games and automata for checking provability.
This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2014). The symposium took place in Verona, Italy, from 10th to 12th of September 2014. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 19 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers range over a wide spectrum, including algorithmic and behavioral game theory, game semantics, formal languages and automata theory, modal and temporal logics, software veri…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2013). The symposium took place in Borca di Cadore, Italy, from 29th to 31st of August 2013. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 17 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers range over a wide spectrum, including algorithmic and behavioral game theory, game semantics, formal languages and automata theory, modal and temporal logics, softwa…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2016). The symposium took place in Catania, Italy, from the 14th to the 16th of September 2016. The proceedings of the symposium contain abstracts of the 3 invited talks and 21 full papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers cover algorithmic game theory, automata theory, synthesis, formal verification, and dynamic, modal and temporal logics.
Mean-payoff games on timed automata are played on the infinite weighted graph of configurations of priced timed automata between two players, Player Min and Player Max, by moving a token along the states of the graph to form an infinite run. The goal of Player Min is to minimize the limit average weight of the run, while the goal of the Player Max is the opposite. Brenguier, Cassez, and Raskin recently studied a variation of these games and showed that mean-payoff games are undecidable for timed automata with five or more clocks. We refine this result by proving the undecidability of mean-payo…
We prove that the determinacy of Gale-Stewart games whose winning sets are infinitary rational relations accepted by 2-tape Büchi automata is equivalent to the determinacy of (effective) analytic Gale-Stewart games which is known to be a large cardinal assumption. Then we prove that winning strategies, when they exist, can be very complex, i.e. highly non-effective, in these games. We prove the same results for Gale-Stewart games with winning sets accepted by real-time 1-counter Büchi automata, then extending previous results obtained about these games. Then we consider the strenghs of determi…
Parikh's game logic is a PDL-like fixpoint logic interpreted on monotone neighbourhood frames that represent the strategic power of players in determined two-player games. Game logic translates into a fragment of the monotone $μ$-calculus, which in turn is expressively equivalent to monotone modal automata. Parity games and automata are important tools for dealing with the combinatorial complexity of nested fixpoints in modal fixpoint logics, such as the modal $μ$-calculus. In this paper, we (1) discuss the semantics a of game logic over neighbourhood structures in terms of parity games, and (…
In a reachability-time game, players Min and Max choose moves so that the time to reach a final state in a timed automaton is minimised or maximised, respectively. Asarin and Maler showed decidability of reachability-time games on strongly non-Zeno timed automata using a value iteration algorithm. This paper complements their work by providing a strategy improvement algorithm for the problem. It also generalizes their decidability result because the proposed strategy improvement algorithm solves reachability-time games on all timed automata. The exact computational complexity of solving reacha…
This volume contains the proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2020). The symposium took place as a fully online event on September 21-22, 2020. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandALF has a truly i…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2019). The symposium took place in Bordeaux, France, from the 2nd to the 3rd of September 2010. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandAL…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2017). The symposium took place in Roma, Italy, from the 20th to the 22nd of September 2017. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. GandALF …
This volume contains the Proceedings of the first Symposium on "Games, Automata, Logic, and Formal Verification (GandALF)", held in Minori (Amalfi coast), Italy, 17-18 June 2010. The symposium has been promoted by a number of Italian computer scientists interested in game theory, mathematical logic, automata theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. It covers a large spectrum of research topics, ranging from theoretical aspects to concrete applications. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with a d…
Markov automata combine continuous time, probabilistic transitions, and nondeterminism in a single model. They represent an important and powerful way to model a wide range of complex real-life systems. However, such models tend to be large and difficult to handle, making abstraction and abstraction refinement necessary. In this paper we present an abstraction and abstraction refinement technique for Markov automata, based on the game-based and menu-based abstraction of probabilistic automata. First experiments show that a significant reduction in size is possible using abstraction.
We study reachability games on recursive timed automata (RTA) that generalize Alur-Dill timed automata with recursive procedure invocation mechanism similar to recursive state machines. It is known that deciding the winner in reachability games on RTA is undecidable for automata with two or more clocks, while the problem is decidable for automata with only one clock. Ouaknine and Worrell recently proposed a time-bounded theory of real-time verification by claiming that restriction to bounded-time recovers decidability for several key decision problem related to real-time verification. We revis…
This volume contains the Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Games, Automata, Languages, and Formal Verification (GandALF 2011). The conference was held in Minori (Amalfi Coast, Italy), from the 15th to the 17th of June 2011. The aim of the GandALF Symposium is to provide a forum for researchers from different areas and with different background, that share a common interest in game theory, mathematical logic, automata theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. This proceedings contain the abstracts of three invited talks …
This volume contains the proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2015). The symposium took place in Genoa, Italy, on the 21st and 22nd of September 2015. The proceedings of the symposium contain the abstracts of three invited talks and 13 papers that were accepted after a careful evaluation for presentation at the conference. The topics of the accepted papers cover algorithmic game theory, automata theory, formal verification, and modal and temporal logics.
Algorithms for model checking and satisfiability of the modal $μ$-calculus start by converting formulas to alternating parity tree automata. Thus, model checking is reduced to checking acceptance by tree automata and satisfiability to checking their emptiness. The first reduces directly to the solution of parity games but the second is more complicated. We review the non-emptiness checking of alternating tree automata by a reduction to solving parity games of a certain structure, so-called emptiness games. Since the emptiness problem for alternating tree automata is EXPTIME-complete, the size …
In the previous work, we have given a novel, game-semantic model of computation in an intrinsic, non-inductive and non-axiomatic manner, which is similar to Turing machines but beyond computation on natural numbers, e.g., higher-order computation. As the main theorem of the work, it has been shown that the game-semantic model may execute all the computation of the programming language PCF. The present paper revisits this result from an automata-theoretic perspective: It shows that deterministic non-erasing pushdown automata whose input tape is equipped with simple directed edges between cells …
The parameter synthesis problem for parametric timed automata is undecidable in general even for very simple reachability properties. In this paper we introduce restrictions on parameter valuations under which the parameter synthesis problem is decidable for LTL properties. The investigated bounded integer parameter synthesis problem could be solved using an explicit enumeration of all possible parameter valuations. We propose an alternative symbolic zone-based method for this problem which results in a faster computation. Our technique extends the ideas of the automata-based approach to LTL m…
We solve a generalized version of Church's Synthesis Problem where a play is given by a sequence of natural numbers rather than a sequence of bits; so a play is an element of the Baire space rather than of the Cantor space. Two players Input and Output choose natural numbers in alternation to generate a play. We present a natural model of automata ("N-memory automata") equipped with the parity acceptance condition, and we introduce also the corresponding model of "N-memory transducers". We show that solvability of games specified by N-memory automata (i.e., existence of a winning strategy for …
$μ$-Calculus and automata on infinite trees are complementary ways of describing infinite tree languages. The correspondence between $μ$-Calculus and alternating tree automaton is used to solve the satisfiability and model checking problems by compiling the modal $μ$-Calculus formula into an alternating tree automata. Thus advocating an automaton model specially tailored for working with modal $μ$-Calculus. The advantage of the automaton model is its ability to deal with arbitrary branching in a much simpler way as compare to the one proposed by Janin and Walukiewicz. Both problems (i.e., mode…
We introduce a natural notion of limit-deterministic parity automata and present a method that uses such automata to construct satisfiability games for the weakly aconjunctive fragment of the $μ$-calculus. To this end we devise a method that determinizes limit-deterministic parity automata of size $n$ with $k$ priorities through limit-deterministic Büchi automata to deterministic parity automata of size $\mathcal{O}((nk)!)$ and with $\mathcal{O}(nk)$ priorities. The construction relies on limit-determinism to avoid the full complexity of the Safra/Piterman-construction by using partial permuta…
In this work we aim at applying automata techniques to problems studied in Dynamic Epistemic Logic, such as epistemic planning. To do so, we first remark that repeatedly executing ad infinitum a propositional event model from an initial epistemic model yields a relational structure that can be finitely represented with automata. This correspondence, together with recent results on uniform strategies, allows us to give an alternative decidability proof of the epistemic planning problem for propositional events, with as by-products accurate upper-bounds on its time complexity, and the possibilit…
This volume contains the proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logic and Formal Verification (GandALF 2018). The symposium took place in Saarbrücken, Germany, from the 26th to the 28th of September 2018. The GandALF symposium was established by a group of Italian computer scientists interested in mathematical logic, automata theory, game theory, and their applications to the specification, design, and verification of complex systems. Its aim is to provide a forum where people from different areas, and possibly with different backgrounds, can fruitfully interact. …
We recently introduced p-automata, automata that read discrete-time Markov chains. We used turn-based stochastic parity games to define acceptance of Markov chains by a subclass of p-automata. Definition of acceptance required a cumbersome and complicated reduction to a series of turn-based stochastic parity games. The reduction could not support acceptance by general p-automata, which was left undefined as there was no notion of games that supported it. Here we generalize two-player games by adding a structural acceptance condition called obligations. Obligations are orthogonal to the linear …
In this work, we design the game semantics for timed equivalences and preorders of timed processes. The timed games corresponding to the various timed relations form a hierarchy. These games are similar to Stirling's bisimulation games. If it is the case that the existence of a winning strategy for the defender in a game ${\cal G}_1$ implies that there exists a winning strategy for the defender in another game ${\cal G}_2$, then the relation that corresponds to ${\cal G}_1$ is stronger than the relation corresponding to ${\cal G}_2$. The game hierarchy also throws light into several timed rela…
Obtaining accepting lassos, witnesses and winning strategies in omega-automata and games with omega-regular winning conditions is an integral part of many formal methods commonly found in practice today. Despite the fact that in most applications, the lassos, witnesses and strategies found should be as small as possible, little is known about the hardness of obtaining small such certificates. In this paper, we survey the known hardness results and complete the complexity landscape for the cases not considered in the literature so far. We pay particular attention to the approximation hardness o…
We study the (parameter) synthesis problem for one-counter automata with parameters. One-counter automata are obtained by extending classical finite-state automata with a counter whose value can range over non-negative integers and be tested for zero. The updates and tests applicable to the counter can further be made parametric by introducing a set of integer-valued variables called parameters. The synthesis problem for such automata asks whether there exists a valuation of the parameters such that all infinite runs of the automaton satisfy some omega-regular property. Lechner showed that (th…
Several distinct techniques have been proposed to design quasi-polynomial algorithms for solving parity games since the breakthrough result of Calude, Jain, Khoussainov, Li, and Stephan (2017): play summaries, progress measures and register games. We argue that all those techniques can be viewed as instances of the separation approach to solving parity games, a key technical component of which is constructing (explicitly or implicitly) an automaton that separates languages of words encoding plays that are (decisively) won by either of the two players. Our main technical result is a quasi-polyn…
Zielonka's theorem shows that each regular set of Mazurkiewicz traces can be implemented as a system of synchronized processes with a distributed control structure called asynchronous automaton. This paper gives a polynomial algorithm for the synthesis of a non-deterministic asynchronous automaton from a regular Mazurkiewicz trace language. This new construction is based on an unfolding approach that improves the complexity of Zielonka's and Pighizzini's techniques in terms of the number of states.
The model-checking problem for probabilistic systems crucially relies on the translation of LTL to deterministic Rabin automata (DRW). Our recent Safraless translation for the LTL(F,G) fragment produces smaller automata as compared to the traditional approach. In this work, instead of DRW we consider deterministic automata with acceptance condition given as disjunction of generalized Rabin pairs (DGRW). The Safraless translation of LTL(F,G) formulas to DGRW results in smaller automata as compared to DRW. We present algorithms for probabilistic model-checking as well as game solving for DGRW co…
In this paper we revisit the regular-language representation of game semantics of second-order recursion free Idealized Algol with infinite data types. By using symbolic values instead of concrete ones we generalize the standard notion of regular-language and automata representations to that of corresponding symbolic representations. In this way terms with infinite data types, such as integers, can be expressed as finite symbolic-automata although the standard automata interpretation is infinite. Moreover, significant reductions of the state space of game semantics models are obtained. This en…
In this paper we present a unifying approach for deciding various bisimulations, simulation equivalences and preorders between two timed automata states. We propose a zone based method for deciding these relations in which we eliminate an explicit product construction of the region graphs or the zone graphs as in the classical methods. Our method is also generic and can be used to decide several timed relations. We also present a game characterization for these timed relations and show that the game hierarchy reflects the hierarchy of the timed relations. One can obtain an infinite game hierar…
Given a specification of linear-time temporal logic interpreted over finite traces (LTLf), the reactive synthesis problem asks to find a finitely-representable, terminating controller that reacts to the uncontrollable actions of an environment in order to enforce a desired system specification. In this paper we study, for the first time, the reactive synthesis problem for DECLARE - a fragment of LTLf extensively used both in theory and practice for specifying declarative, constraint-based business processes. We provide a threefold contribution. First, we give a naive, doubly exponential time s…
Dense Integer-Complete Synthesis for Bounded Parametric Timed Automata
Université Sorbonne Paris Nord（索邦巴黎北大学）；Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)（法国大学研究院）；Nantes Université, École Centrale Nantes, CNRS, LS2N（南特大学，中央理工-南特学院，法国国家科学研究中心，LS2N）
Parametric timed automata (PTA) extend timed automata by allowing parameters in clock constraints. Such a formalism is for instance useful when reasoning about unknown delays in a timed system. Using existing techniques, a user can synthesize the parameter constraints that allow the system to reach a specified goal location, regardless of how much time has passed for the internal clocks. We focus on synthesizing parameters such that not only the goal location is reached, but we also address the following questions: what is the minimal time to reach the goal location? and for which parameter va…
The notion of separating automata was introduced by Bojanczyk and Czerwinski for understanding the first quasipolynomial time algorithm for parity games. In this paper we show that separating automata is a powerful tool for constructing algorithms solving games with combinations of objectives. We construct two new algorithms: the first for disjunctions of parity and mean payoff objectives, matching the best known complexity, and the second for disjunctions of mean payoff objectives, improving on the state of the art. In both cases the algorithms are obtained through the construction of small s…
This paper studies a large class of two-player perfect-information turn-based parity games on infinite graphs, namely those generated by collapsible pushdown automata. The main motivation for studying these games comes from the connections from collapsible pushdown automata and higher-order recursion schemes, both models being equi-expressive for generating infinite trees. Our main result is to establish the decidability of such games and to provide an effective representation of the winning region as well as of a winning strategy. Thus, the results obtained here provide all necessary tools fo…
In this paper we address the synthesis problem for specifications given in linear temporal single-agent epistemic logic, KLTL (or $KL_1$), over single-agent systems having imperfect information of the environment state. Van der Meyden and Vardi have shown that this problem is 2Exptime complete. However, their procedure relies on complex automata constructions that are notoriously resistant to efficient implementations as they use Safra-like determinization. We propose a "Safraless" synthesis procedure for a large fragment of KLTL. The construction transforms first the synthesis problem into th…
We show that solving delay games with winning conditions given by deterministic and nondeterministic weak Muller automata is 2EXPTIME-complete respectively 3EXPTIME-complete. Furthermore, doubly and triply exponential lookahead is necessary and sufficient to win such games. These results are the first that show that the succinctness of the automata types used to specify the winning conditions has an influence on the complexity of these problems.
The classic approaches to synthesize a reactive system from a linear temporal logic (LTL) specification first translate the given LTL formula to an equivalent omega-automaton and then compute a winning strategy for the corresponding omega-regular game. To this end, the obtained omega-automata have to be (pseudo)-determinized where typically a variant of Safra's determinization procedure is used. In this paper, we show that this determinization step can be significantly improved for tool implementations by replacing Safra's determinization by simpler determinization procedures. In particular, w…
This paper proposes DeepSynth, a method for effective training of deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents when the reward is sparse and non-Markovian, but at the same time progress towards the reward requires achieving an unknown sequence of high-level objectives. Our method employs a novel algorithm for synthesis of compact automata to uncover this sequential structure automatically. We synthesise a human-interpretable automaton from trace data collected by exploring the environment. The state space of the environment is then enriched with the synthesised automaton so that the generation of a…
Parameter Synthesis Problems for one parametric clock Timed Automata
RISE, Southwest University（西南大学 RISE）；Department of Computer Science and Informatioin Systems, Birkbeck, University of London（伦敦大学伯贝克学院计算机科学与信息系统系）；LMAM & School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University（北京大学数学科学学院 LMAM）；State Key Laboratory of Computer Science, Institute of Software, CAS（中国科学院软件研究所 计算机科学国家重点实验室）；CISS, CS, Aalborg University（奥尔堡大学计算机科学与工程系 CISS）
Games on recursive game graphs can be used to reason about the control flow of sequential programs with recursion. In games over recursive game graphs, the most natural notion of strategy is the modular strategy, i.e., a strategy that is local to a module and is oblivious to previous module invocations, and thus does not depend on the context of invocation. In this work, we study for the first time modular strategies with respect to winning conditions that can be expressed by a pushdown automaton. We show that such games are undecidable in general, and become decidable for visibly pushdown aut…
We consider simulation games played between Spoiler and Duplicator on two Büchi automata in which the choices made by Spoiler can be buffered by Duplicator in several buffers before she executes them on her structure. We show that the simulation games are useful to approximate the inclusion of trace closures of languages accepted by finite-state automata, which is known to be undecidable. We study the decidability and complexity and show that the game with bounded buffers can be decided in polynomial time, whereas the game with one unbounded and one bounded buffer is highly undecidable. We als…
