Pub Date : 2025-05-08DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103331
Abdalrahman Aburakhia , Mohammad Alshayeb
Third-party libraries (TPLs) have been widely used in software development. Recent studies showed that software developers struggle to manage the dependencies between third-party libraries for many reasons, such as unknown update efforts and the lack of awareness about related security issues. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we propose a TPL update prioritization approach, which provides valuable insights for mobile app developers to help improve the decision-making process. We investigate mobile app developers’ behavior while updating TPLs through a survey with 39 practitioners. The results clearly show the need for a prioritization approach. To gain more insight into TPL, we propose five TPL categories (Compatibility, Accessibility, Maintenance, Business Value, and Security) and propose metrics to measure the related factors of each category. We utilize the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) methods to rank the libraries for the update and automate the approach via a chatbot. We conducted a case study with 7 participants. Most participants (82 %) found the bot’s results useful; moreover, the bot can save software developers around 4 min per task, with an average of 18 s per task compared to 243 s by the baseline.
{"title":"Toward a prioritization approach for third-party software library updates","authors":"Abdalrahman Aburakhia , Mohammad Alshayeb","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103331","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103331","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Third-party libraries (TPLs) have been widely used in software development. Recent studies showed that software developers struggle to manage the dependencies between third-party libraries for many reasons, such as unknown update efforts and the lack of awareness about related security issues. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we propose a TPL update prioritization approach, which provides valuable insights for mobile app developers to help improve the decision-making process. We investigate mobile app developers’ behavior while updating TPLs through a survey with 39 practitioners. The results clearly show the need for a prioritization approach. To gain more insight into TPL, we propose five TPL categories (Compatibility, Accessibility, Maintenance, Business Value, and Security) and propose metrics to measure the related factors of each category. We utilize the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) methods to rank the libraries for the update and automate the approach via a chatbot. We conducted a case study with 7 participants. Most participants (82 %) found the bot’s results useful; moreover, the bot can save software developers around 4 min per task, with an average of 18 s per task compared to 243 s by the baseline.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"246 ","pages":"Article 103331"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-07DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103320
Szymon Stradowski , Lech Madeyski
Context
“Your AI is impressive, but my code does not contain any bugs”— such a statement from a software developer is the antithesis of a quality mindset and open communication. What makes it worse is that it is oftentimes true.
Objective
This paper analyses false positives' impact and related challenges in machine learning software defect prediction and describes the mitigation possibilities.
Methods
We propose a broad-picture perspective on dealing with false positive predictions based on what we learned from our industrial implementation study in Nokia 5G.
Results
Accordingly, we draw a new direction in transitioning defect prediction into a well-established industry practice, as well as highlight potential emerging topics in predictive software engineering.
Conclusion
Increasing human buy-in and the business impact of predictions significantly improves the chances of future software defect prediction industry adoptions to succeed.
{"title":"“Your AI is impressive, but my code does not have any bugs” managing false positives in industrial contexts","authors":"Szymon Stradowski , Lech Madeyski","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103320","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103320","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Context</h3><div>“Your AI is impressive, but my code does not contain any bugs”— such a statement from a software developer is the antithesis of a quality mindset and open communication. What makes it worse is that it is oftentimes true.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>This paper analyses false positives' impact and related challenges in machine learning software defect prediction and describes the mitigation possibilities.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We propose a broad-picture perspective on dealing with false positive predictions based on what we learned from our industrial implementation study in Nokia 5G.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Accordingly, we draw a new direction in transitioning defect prediction into a well-established industry practice, as well as highlight potential emerging topics in predictive software engineering.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Increasing human buy-in and the business impact of predictions significantly improves the chances of future software defect prediction industry adoptions to succeed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"246 ","pages":"Article 103320"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143924121","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-05-02DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103321
Dominique Méry, Rosemary Monahan
{"title":"Selected papers from the Rigorous State-Based Methods, 7th International Conference, ABZ 2023, Nancy, France, May 30–June 2, 2023","authors":"Dominique Méry, Rosemary Monahan","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103321","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103321","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"247 ","pages":"Article 103321"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144672360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-28DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103319
Joelma Choma, Luciana Zaina
The Internet of Things (IoT) has increasingly gained prominence in developing smart cities. IoT technologies are essential resources to make smart cities more efficient and sustainable. Recent research in Software Engineering (SE) has investigated the characteristics of IoT systems and the most appropriate approaches to their design and development. The development of systems based on IoT technologies enables a continuous flow of communication in the context of a smart city by allowing different systems to interact and adjust automatically to optimize the city's operation. In an urban environment, IoT connects a vast network of devices such as environmental sensors, public transportation systems, smart traffic lights, security cameras, and more. These characteristics make these applications complex and difficult to evaluate, particularly regarding User Experience (UX) design. Recently, we performed a rapid systematic review to examine the methods and practices commonly employed for evaluating the UX in these scenarios. In our previous work, we analyzed 43 studies covering different types of IoT-based applications and areas of smart cities. In this study, we extend our analysis by exploring which quality aspects have been considered for UX evaluation and categorizing the typical applications evaluated. Our findings revealed the need for more appropriate UX instruments to assess quality aspects that consider specific features of non-traditional interfaces (e.g., haptics, gesture, speech) and smart technologies within specific interaction contexts (e.g., smart environments based on ubiquitous computing). These instruments can be expanded from established guidelines or developed from scratch as long as they are validated in practice.
{"title":"Investigating quality aspects for UX evaluation of IoT-based applications in smart cities: A literature review","authors":"Joelma Choma, Luciana Zaina","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103319","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103319","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Internet of Things (IoT) has increasingly gained prominence in developing smart cities. IoT technologies are essential resources to make smart cities more efficient and sustainable. Recent research in Software Engineering (SE) has investigated the characteristics of IoT systems and the most appropriate approaches to their design and development. The development of systems based on IoT technologies enables a continuous flow of communication in the context of a smart city by allowing different systems to interact and adjust automatically to optimize the city's operation. In an urban environment, IoT connects a vast network of devices such as environmental sensors, public transportation systems, smart traffic lights, security cameras, and more. These characteristics make these applications complex and difficult to evaluate, particularly regarding User Experience (UX) design. Recently, we performed a rapid systematic review to examine the methods and practices commonly employed for evaluating the UX in these scenarios. In our previous work, we analyzed 43 studies covering different types of IoT-based applications and areas of smart cities. In this study, we extend our analysis by exploring which quality aspects have been considered for UX evaluation and categorizing the typical applications evaluated. Our findings revealed the need for more appropriate UX instruments to assess quality aspects that consider specific features of non-traditional interfaces (e.g., haptics, gesture, speech) and smart technologies within specific interaction contexts (e.g., smart environments based on ubiquitous computing). These instruments can be expanded from established guidelines or developed from scratch as long as they are validated in practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103319"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143882140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-24DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103318
Magalí González, Luca Cernuzzi
Specifying architectural properties is still an open issue for Model Driven Web Engineering to address portability, adaptability, and evolution. Several Model-Driven Web methods and methodologies consider extensions that enrich the Platform Independent Model (PIM) or the Platform Specific Model (PSM) to include elements of a particular platform or architecture. However, the degree of independence of the model is critical to achieving adaptability and evolution. Therefore, some authors have proposed a new layer called an Architecture Specific Model (ASM) to model architectural properties. Some evidence suggests that adopting ASM as an intermediate stage between PIM and PSM is a way to facilitate the evolution of web system. This paper focuses on the Architecture Specific Model (ASM) of MoWebA (Model Oriented Web Approach), and analyzes its impact on adaptability across different architectural styles. A case study is presented to validate this issue by extending MoWebA to three different architectures. In such extensions, we analyze the degree of adaptability of MoWebA and the automation of PIM-ASM, as well as the degree of independence of the PIM metamodel. In addition, through three types of questionnaire and other quantitative data, the study analyzes user satisfaction with the adoption of MoWebA.
对于模型驱动Web工程来说，指定体系结构属性仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，以解决可移植性、适应性和进化问题。一些模型驱动的Web方法和方法学考虑了丰富平台独立模型（PIM）或平台特定模型（PSM）的扩展，以包含特定平台或体系结构的元素。然而，模型的独立程度对于实现适应性和进化至关重要。因此，一些作者提出了一个称为体系结构特定模型（ASM）的新层来为体系结构属性建模。一些证据表明，采用ASM作为PIM和PSM之间的中间阶段是促进web系统发展的一种方式。本文重点研究了MoWebA（面向模型的Web方法）的体系结构特定模型（Architecture Specific Model， ASM），并分析了它对不同体系结构风格的适应性的影响。通过将MoWebA扩展到三种不同的体系结构，给出了一个案例研究来验证这个问题。在这些扩展中，我们分析了MoWebA的自适应程度和PIM- asm的自动化程度，以及PIM元模型的独立程度。此外，本研究通过三种类型的问卷调查和其他定量数据，分析了MoWebA采用的用户满意度。
{"title":"Analyzing MoWebA's adaptability across architectures","authors":"Magalí González, Luca Cernuzzi","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103318","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103318","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Specifying architectural properties is still an open issue for Model Driven Web Engineering to address portability, adaptability, and evolution. Several Model-Driven Web methods and methodologies consider extensions that enrich the Platform Independent Model (PIM) or the Platform Specific Model (PSM) to include elements of a particular platform or architecture. However, the degree of independence of the model is critical to achieving adaptability and evolution. Therefore, some authors have proposed a new layer called an Architecture Specific Model (ASM) to model architectural properties. Some evidence suggests that adopting ASM as an intermediate stage between PIM and PSM is a way to facilitate the evolution of web system. This paper focuses on the Architecture Specific Model (ASM) of MoWebA (Model Oriented Web Approach), and analyzes its impact on adaptability across different architectural styles. A case study is presented to validate this issue by extending MoWebA to three different architectures. In such extensions, we analyze the degree of adaptability of MoWebA and the automation of PIM-ASM, as well as the degree of independence of the PIM metamodel. In addition, through three types of questionnaire and other quantitative data, the study analyzes user satisfaction with the adoption of MoWebA.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103318"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143903524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-19DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103317
Xiangyu Mu , Xuan Zhang , Chenlu Zhu , Ning Li , Peng Zhang , Lei Liu
With the continuous development of the MapReduce programming model, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of MapReduce programs. In practice, the non-commutativity of Reduce functions seriously affects the reliability of the MapReduce program, which is difficult to debug and even causes errors. Current researches on the non-commutability detection of Reduce function consider the case that the input value is a single attribute. However, such researches ignore the situation where inputs to most reduce functions in practical applications consist of multiple columns (such as a table). To test the commutativity of reduce functions where each input record may contain several input attributes, a new testing method is proposed. This approach uses symbolic execution tools to help generate a few input records, and breaks their data dependencies to generate an original test case t0, with a dynamic program slicing technique to lessen the scale of t0. And the ultimate test suite is consisted of different permutations of records in t0. In the end, experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our testing method and that the permutation method Gm is helpful to reduce its complexity.
{"title":"Testing non-commutativity of reduce functions with multi-column inputs","authors":"Xiangyu Mu , Xuan Zhang , Chenlu Zhu , Ning Li , Peng Zhang , Lei Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103317","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103317","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the continuous development of the MapReduce programming model, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of MapReduce programs. In practice, the non-commutativity of Reduce functions seriously affects the reliability of the MapReduce program, which is difficult to debug and even causes errors. Current researches on the non-commutability detection of Reduce function consider the case that the input value is a single attribute. However, such researches ignore the situation where inputs to most reduce functions in practical applications consist of multiple columns (such as a table). To test the commutativity of reduce functions where each input record may contain several input attributes, a new testing method is proposed. This approach uses symbolic execution tools to help generate a few input records, and breaks their data dependencies to generate an original test case t<sub>0</sub>, with a dynamic program slicing technique to lessen the scale of t<sub>0</sub>. And the ultimate test suite is consisted of different permutations of records in t<sub>0</sub>. In the end, experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our testing method and that the permutation method Gm is helpful to reduce its complexity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103317"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143856028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The complexity of Autonomous Vehicles imposes significant challenges to their formal specification and verification, especially when incorporating AI controllers based on quantized neural networks (QNNs), which use fixed-point arithmetic to accommodate the limited computational capabilities of embedded systems. Despite the advantages of QNNs, verification of these networks, whether using integers or bit vectors, has proven to be PSPACE-hard.
Our approach focuses on exhaustively verifying abstract scenarios expressed as Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) proof objectives. We propose a formal verification method for QNNs that involves analyzing a rational approximation of the network with perturbations to ensure that the output sets of the perturbed rational neural network include those of both the QNN and its rational neural network approximation.
The distance between these output sets is computed using the p-norm. To evaluate our methodology, we used the Highway-env autonomous vehicle simulator and z3 SMT solver.
{"title":"Formal specification and SMT verification of quantized neural network for autonomous vehicles","authors":"Wahiba Bachiri , Yassamine Seladji , Pierre-Loïc Garoche","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103316","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103316","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The complexity of Autonomous Vehicles imposes significant challenges to their formal specification and verification, especially when incorporating AI controllers based on quantized neural networks (QNNs), which use fixed-point arithmetic to accommodate the limited computational capabilities of embedded systems. Despite the advantages of QNNs, verification of these networks, whether using integers or bit vectors, has proven to be <span>PSPACE</span>-hard.</div><div>Our approach focuses on exhaustively verifying abstract scenarios expressed as Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) proof objectives. We propose a formal verification method for QNNs that involves analyzing a rational approximation of the network with perturbations to ensure that the output sets of the perturbed rational neural network include those of both the QNN and its rational neural network approximation.</div><div>The distance between these output sets is computed using the <em>p</em>-norm. To evaluate our methodology, we used the <span>Highway-env</span> autonomous vehicle simulator and z3 SMT solver.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103316"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143856029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-04DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103312
Stefan Hallerstede , John Hatcliff
Many visions for model-driven component-based development emphasize models as the “single source of truth” by which different forms of analysis, specification, verification, and code generation are integrated. Such visions depend strongly on a clear modeling language semantics that provides different tools and stakeholders with a common understanding of a model's meaning. In this paper, we report on a mechanization in the Isabelle theorem prover of a formal semantics for key aspects of the SAE standard AADL modeling language. A primary goal of this semantics is to support component-oriented contract specification and verification as well as code generation implemented in the HAMR AADL model-driven development tool chain. We provide formal definitions of run-time system state, execution steps, reachable states, and property verification. Use of the mechanization for real-world applications is supported by automated HAMR translation from AADL models into the Isabelle specifications. In addition to general verification support, we define well-formedness properties and associated proofs for models, system states, and traces that are automatically proven for HAMR-generated Isabelle models.
{"title":"A mechanized semantics for component-based systems in the HAMR AADL runtime","authors":"Stefan Hallerstede , John Hatcliff","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103312","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103312","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many visions for model-driven component-based development emphasize models as the “single source of truth” by which different forms of analysis, specification, verification, and code generation are integrated. Such visions depend strongly on a clear modeling language semantics that provides different tools and stakeholders with a common understanding of a model's meaning. In this paper, we report on a mechanization in the Isabelle theorem prover of a formal semantics for key aspects of the SAE standard AADL modeling language. A primary goal of this semantics is to support component-oriented contract specification and verification as well as code generation implemented in the HAMR AADL model-driven development tool chain. We provide formal definitions of run-time system state, execution steps, reachable states, and property verification. Use of the mechanization for real-world applications is supported by automated HAMR translation from AADL models into the Isabelle specifications. In addition to general verification support, we define well-formedness properties and associated proofs for models, system states, and traces that are automatically proven for HAMR-generated Isabelle models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103312"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-04DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103314
Sascha Lehmann , Antje Rogalla , Maximilian Neidhardt , Alexander Schlaefer , Sibylle Schupp
Autonomous systems often address complex planning problems, which require both prospective action planning and retrospective data evaluation. Timed games could aid since they automatically synthesize strategies that, provably correct, solve those planning problems; yet, they assume a static model of the environment, which is not realistic for autonomous systems. However, many autonomous systems are control applications, which employ sensors that capture system behavior at run time and can thus compensate for incomplete knowledge at modeling time. In this paper, we propose an online strategy synthesis, which, based on offline strategy synthesis on the one hand and on sensor information about the current state of the physical world on the other hand, derives formal safety guarantees while reacting and adapting to environment changes. We formalize the needle-steering problem from medical robotics, i.e., the problem of navigating a (flexible and beveled) needle through partially unknown tissue towards a target without damaging its surroundings, by interpreting it as a timed game. Further, we introduce a new representation of its environment through different region types that determine the acceptance of action plans and trigger local correcting actions. We present an algorithm for online strategy synthesis and, for the given region representation, formally prove that it returns safe online controllers. The algorithm is implemented on top of Uppaal Stratego. For two medical applications of needle steering, peridural anesthesia and predefined needle trajectory, we demonstrate the necessity of online adjustments in a series of simulations with various degrees of initial knowledge about the environment, and show that the overhead of online synthesis remains practical.
{"title":"A provably safe controller for the needle-steering problem using online strategy synthesis","authors":"Sascha Lehmann , Antje Rogalla , Maximilian Neidhardt , Alexander Schlaefer , Sibylle Schupp","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103314","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103314","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Autonomous systems often address complex planning problems, which require both prospective action planning and retrospective data evaluation. Timed games could aid since they automatically synthesize strategies that, provably correct, solve those planning problems; yet, they assume a static model of the environment, which is not realistic for autonomous systems. However, many autonomous systems are control applications, which employ sensors that capture system behavior at run time and can thus compensate for incomplete knowledge at modeling time. In this paper, we propose an <em>online strategy synthesis</em>, which, based on offline strategy synthesis on the one hand and on sensor information about the current state of the physical world on the other hand, derives formal safety guarantees while reacting and adapting to environment changes. We formalize the needle-steering problem from medical robotics, i.e., the problem of navigating a (flexible and beveled) needle through partially unknown tissue towards a target without damaging its surroundings, by interpreting it as a timed game. Further, we introduce a new representation of its environment through different region types that determine the acceptance of action plans and trigger local correcting actions. We present an algorithm for online strategy synthesis and, for the given region representation, formally prove that it returns safe online controllers. The algorithm is implemented on top of Uppaal Stratego. For two medical applications of needle steering, <em>peridural anesthesia</em> and <em>predefined needle trajectory</em>, we demonstrate the necessity of online adjustments in a series of simulations with various degrees of initial knowledge about the environment, and show that the overhead of online synthesis remains practical.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103314"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143799713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-03DOI: 10.1016/j.scico.2025.103313
Cheng-Hao Cai , Jing Sun , Gillian Dobbie
A design model is the abstract representation of an actual process or software product. Although some software faults can be found by diagnosing design models before implementation, repairing the design models is time-consuming to software developers. To achieve faster software development, this paper introduces an automated approach to generally repair design models diagnosed by model checking. Model checkers are used to detect faults such as unreachable goals and violated properties in design models. Such faults are eliminated in parallel by insertion, modification and deletion operators found by constraint solving and predictive models. The outcomes of model repair are evaluated using the ISO/IEC 25010 software quality metrics. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed approach can eliminate unreachable goals and invariant violations in various design models while preserving their model quality. The effectiveness and performance of such design model repair processes depend mainly on the complexity of design model, the efficiency of constraint solver and the accuracy of predictive model. This study indicates that model-driven software development can be more efficient by automating model diagnosis, fault elimination and quality evaluation.
{"title":"The automation of design model repair","authors":"Cheng-Hao Cai , Jing Sun , Gillian Dobbie","doi":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103313","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.scico.2025.103313","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A design model is the abstract representation of an actual process or software product. Although some software faults can be found by diagnosing design models before implementation, repairing the design models is time-consuming to software developers. To achieve faster software development, this paper introduces an automated approach to generally repair design models diagnosed by model checking. Model checkers are used to detect faults such as unreachable goals and violated properties in design models. Such faults are eliminated in parallel by insertion, modification and deletion operators found by constraint solving and predictive models. The outcomes of model repair are evaluated using the ISO/IEC 25010 software quality metrics. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed approach can eliminate unreachable goals and invariant violations in various design models while preserving their model quality. The effectiveness and performance of such design model repair processes depend mainly on the complexity of design model, the efficiency of constraint solver and the accuracy of predictive model. This study indicates that model-driven software development can be more efficient by automating model diagnosis, fault elimination and quality evaluation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49561,"journal":{"name":"Science of Computer Programming","volume":"245 ","pages":"Article 103313"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143786229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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