Exploring Behaviors of Hybrid Systems via the Voronoi Bias over Output Signals

Abstract

In this paper, we consider an analysis of temporal properties of hybrid systems based on simulations, so-called falsification of requirements. We present a novel exploration-based algorithm for falsification of black-box models of hybrid systems based on the Voronoi bias in the output space. This approach is inspired by techniques used originally in motion planning: rapidly exploring random trees. Instead of commonly employed exploration that is based on coverage of inputs, the proposed algorithm aims to cover all possible outputs directly. Compared to other state-of-the-art falsification tools, it also does not require robustness or other guidance metrics tied to a specific behavior that is being falsified. This allows our algorithm to falsify specifications for which robustness is not conclusive enough to guide the falsification procedure.