Real-Time Systems Modeling and Analysis

TL;DR

This survey reviews extensions of finite automata theory to model and analyze real-time and hybrid systems, including timed automata and hybrid automata, with applications like Peterson's Mutual Exclusion protocol.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of automata-based models for real-time and hybrid systems, highlighting recent extensions and practical applications.

Findings

Timed automata effectively model real-time constraints.

Hybrid automata describe mixed discrete-continuous behaviors.

Application case-study demonstrates practical utility.

Abstract

This paper is a survey of extensions to finite automata theory to model real-time systems as well as systems exhibiting mixed discrete-continuous behavior. Real-time systems maintain a continuous and timely interaction with the environment, often adhering to some timing constraints. Therefore, the finite automata theory is extended to measure real-time values and accept or reject runs on a class of automata known as timed-automata, upon satisfying some timed properties. The automata modeling the mixed discrete-continuous behavior of hybrid systems has its continuous-time dynamics described using ordinary differential equations for the state space and discrete-time dynamics describing the control decisions. Based on these dynamical system models, we likewise extend the finite automata theory to describe the behavior of hybrid systems using Hybrid Automata. We further study some applications of this class of systems, sometimes referred to as Cyber-physical systems and perform a case-study on Peterson's Mutual Exclusion protocol using Uppaal.