ify if a property is satisfied in a given system model.
If the property is violated, a counter example of the
system execution is provided. Authors in (Guellouz
et al., 2016) propose an extension to the IEC 61499
(Lewis, 2001) standard called Reconfigurable Func-
tion Block, encapsulating several reconfiguration sce-
narios in one function block. In order to verify the
system and to evaluate its performance, authors model
it using a class of Petri nets called GR-TNCES (Khlifi
et al., 2015). After that, PRISM is used as a model
checker to verify the safety of each reconfiguration
scenario of the system. In (Zhang et al., 2013), au-
thors propose a new extension of TNCES formalism
named reconfigurable net condition/event systems (R-
TNCESs). This last allows to deal with reconfigura-
tion and time properties with modular specification in
the same formalism. In (Hafidi et al., 2018), a new
methodology for formal verification of reconfigurable
discrete event control systems (RDECSs) is proposed
in order to ensure the correctness of systems. The
proposed contribution includes an improved model-
ing and verification of RDECSs. The main idea is
based on the checking of reconfiguration scenarios
(inter-verification) and also the checking of the inter-
nal behavior of each configuration (intra-verification).
All these research works present significant results
regarding the verification task of RDESs. However,
there has been a luck of researches about the opti-
mization of the verification task considering analysed
properties. Actually, the complexity of model check-
ing depends on two parameters: the size of the model,
and the number of properties to be verified. For in-
stance, Bounded Model Checking (BMC) is based on
a reduction of model checking to satisfiability formu-
lae (Jiang et al., 2016). We propose, in this work a
new methodology for the formalization and verifica-
tion of RDESs using theorem proving Isabelle/HOL
to overcome model checking limits. Using such a the-
orem proving has several advantages. First, it gives
a certificate to formal proof when it succeeds. Sec-
ond, when the verification of the given property fails,
it generates a counterexample as a proof to the for-
mula negation, instead of a sequence of states or trees
labeled with states, as in traditional model checkers.
To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first contri-
bution addressing this problem. This paper presents
the following contributions:
• We define a Meta-Model to model RDESs using
MDE. Which is part of the evolution by advocat-
ing the systematic use of models to facilitate un-
derstanding of a complex system and to automate
some of the development processes followed by
engineers.
• We propose a formalisation of RDESs in Isabelle,
which is equivalent to this Meta-model.
• We establish the link between MDE and Isabelle
by defining reconfiguration rules to allow auto-
matic generation of system in Isabelle.
• In order to avoid redundant computations, we pro-
pose a new algorithm for improved verification.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows,
Section II presents background about Model Driven
Engineering (MDE), and Isabelle/HOL. Sections III
and IV involve details about the proposed approach.
Section V presents the new Algorithm of improved
verification. Section VI describes an application of
proposed contributions on a real case study: FESTO
benchmark system. Section VII illustrates perfor-
mance evaluation of the suggested approach. Finally,
Section VIII concludes this paper and highlights some
perspectives of the work.
2 BACKGROUND
In this section, we present details about Isabelle/HOL
theorem proving, and Model Driven Engineering.
2.1 Isabelle/HOL
Isabelle/HOL is an interactive/automated theorem
prover that combines the functional programming
paradigm with high order logic (HOL), which
makes it efficient for developing solid formalizations
(Meghzili et al., 2017). Using Isabelle/HOL, we can
formalize a system and prove its properties (i.e., for-
malize systems, formulating lemmas and theorems on
them) (Ali et al., 2007). Isabelle/HOL has a high de-
gree of credibility for created proofs because it allows
us to prove every step, and therefore the whole proof
is correct. Isabelle has several methods, to describe
data structures. In the following, we show the main
Isabelle concepts used in this paper.
• The theory: The main concept enveloping all ele-
ments used to write a program in Isabelle/HOL.
• Types bool, nat and list: These are the most im-
portant predefined types. Although the lists are
already predefined, and can define their own type.
• Types synonym: Synonym types are abbrevia-
tions for existing types.
• Function: In most cases, defining a recursive
function is as simple as other definitions.
• Record: A record in Isabelle is an element en-
veloping more than one type, to define another
type.
• Lemma: is used to prove a function or properties.
Formalization and Verification of Reconfigurable Discrete-event System using Model Driven Engineering and Isabelle/HOL
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