Monitoring Bounded LTL Properties Using Interval Analysis

Abstract

Verification of temporal logic properties plays a crucial role in proving the desired behaviors of hybrid systems. In this paper, we propose an interval method for verifying the properties described by a bounded linear temporal logic. We relax the problem to allow outputting an inconclusive result when verification process cannot succeed with a prescribed precision, and present an efficient and rigorous monitoring algorithm that demonstrates that the problem is decidable. This algorithm performs a forward simulation of a hybrid automaton, detects a set of time intervals in which the atomic propositions hold, and validates the property by propagating the time intervals. A continuous state at a certain time computed in each step is enclosed by an interval vector that is proven to contain a unique solution. In the experiments, we show that the proposed method provides a useful tool for formal analysis of nonlinear and complex hybrid systems.