Verification of Multi-agent Systems Via Bounded Model Checking

Abstract

We present a bounded model checking (BMC) approach to the verification of temporal epistemic properties of multi-agent systems. We extend the temporal logic CTL* by incorporating epistemic modalities and obtain a temporal epistemic logic that we call CTL*K. CTL*K logic is interpreted under the semantics of synchronous interpreted systems. Though CTL*K is of great expressive power in both temporal and epistemic dimensions, we show that BMC method is still applicable for the universal fragment of CTL*K. We present in some detail a BMC algorithm and prove its correctness. In our approach, agents' knowledge interpreted in synchronous semantics can be skilfully attained by the state position function, which avoids extending the encoding of the states and the transition relations of the plain temporal epistemic model for time domain.