Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Menu
Find a journal Publish with us
Search
Cart
  1. Home
  2. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer
  3. Article

MoonLight: a lightweight tool for monitoring spatio-temporal properties

  • General
  • Special Issue: RV 2020
  • Open access
  • Published: 22 June 2023
  • volume 25, pages 503–517 (2023)
Download PDF

You have full access to this open access article

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer Aims and scope Submit manuscript
MoonLight: a lightweight tool for monitoring spatio-temporal properties
Download PDF
  • Laura Nenzi1,2,
  • Ezio Bartocci2,
  • Luca Bortolussi1,
  • Simone Silvetti3 &
  • …
  • Michele Loreti4 
  • 166 Accesses

  • 1 Citation

  • Explore all metrics

Cite this article

Abstract

We present MoonLight, a tool for monitoring temporal and spatio-temporal properties of mobile, spatially distributed, and interacting entities such as biological and cyber-physical systems. In MoonLight the space is represented as a weighted graph describing the topological configuration in which the single entities are arranged. Both nodes and edges have attributes modeling physical quantities and logical states of the system evolving in time. MoonLight is implemented in Java and supports the monitoring of Spatio-Temporal Reach and Escape Logic (STREL). MoonLight can be used as a standalone command line tool, such as Java API, or via Matlab™ and Python interfaces. We provide here the description of the tool, its interfaces, and its scripting language using a sensor network and a bike sharing example. We evaluate the tool performances both by comparing it with other tools specialized in monitoring only temporal properties and by monitoring spatio-temporal requirements considering different sizes of dynamical and spatial graphs.

Article PDF

Download to read the full article text

Use our pre-submission checklist

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

References

  1. Abbas, H., Fainekos, G.E., Sankaranarayanan, S., et al.: Probabilistic temporal logic falsification of cyber-physical systems. ACM Trans. Embed. Comput. Syst. 12(s2), 95:1–95:30 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1145/2465787.2465797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Akyildiz, I.F., Su, W., Sankarasubramaniam, Y., et al.: A survey on sensor networks. IEEE Commun. Mag. 40(8), 102–114 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2002.1024422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Annpureddy, Y., Liu, C., Fainekos, G.E., et al.: S-TaLiRo: a tool for temporal logic falsification for hybrid systems. In: Proc. of TACAS 2011: The 17th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, pp. 254–257 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19835-9_21

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Asarin, E., Caspi, P., Maler, O.: Timed regular expressions. J. ACM 49(2), 172–206 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1145/506147.506151

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Bartocci, E., et al.: Teaching cardiac electrophysiology modeling to undergraduate students: laboratory exercises and GPU programming for the study of arrhythmias and spiral wave dynamics. Adv. Physiol. Educ. 35(4), 427–437 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00034.2011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., Milios, D., et al.: Studying emergent behaviours in morphogenesis using signal spatio-temporal logic. In: Proc. of HSB 2015. LNCS, vol. 9271, pp. 156–172. Springer, Berlin (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26916-0_9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., Nenzi, L., et al.: System design of stochastic models using robustness of temporal properties. Theor. Comput. Sci. 587, 3–25 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2015.02.046

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., Loreti, M., et al.: Monitoring mobile and spatially distributed cyber-physical systems. In: Proc. of MEMOCODE 2017: The 15th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design, pp. 146–155. ACM, New York (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3127041.3127050

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Bartocci, E., Bloem, R., Nickovic, D., et al.: A counting semantics for monitoring LTL specifications over finite traces. In: Proc. of CAV 2018: The 30th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification. LNCS, vol. 10981, pp. 547–564. Springer, Berlin (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96145-3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Bartocci, E., Deshmukh, J., Donzé, A., et al.: Specification-based monitoring of cyber-physical systems: a survey on theory, tools and applications. In: Lectures on Runtime Verification. LNCS, vol. 10457, pp. 135–175. Springer, Berlin (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5_5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Bartocci, E., Falcone, Y., Francalanza, A., et al.: Introduction to runtime verification. In: Lectures on Runtime Verification – Introductory and Advanced Topics. LNCS, vol. 10457, pp. 1–33. Springer, Berlin (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75632-5

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Bartocci, E., Ferrère, T., Manjunath, N., et al.: Localizing faults in simulink/stateflow models with STL. In: Prandini, M., Deshmukh, J.V. (eds.) Proc. of HSCC 2018 the 21st International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, pp. 197–206. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3178126.3178131

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Bartocci, E., Gol, E.A., Haghighi, I., et al.: A formal methods approach to pattern recognition and synthesis in reaction diffusion networks. IEEE Trans. Control Netw. Syst. 5(1), 308–320 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCNS.2016.2609138

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Bartocci, E., Manjunath, N., Mariani, L., et al.: Automatic failure explanation in CPS models. In: Ölveczky, P.C., Salaün, G. (eds.) Proc. of SEFM 2019: The 17th International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods. LNCS, vol. 11724, pp. 69–86. Springer, Berlin (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30446-1_4

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  15. Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., Loreti, M., et al.: Moonlight: a lightweight tool for monitoring spatio-temporal properties. In: Deshmukh, J., Nickovic, D. (eds.) Proc. of RV 2020: The 20th International Conference on Runtime Verification. LNCS, vol. 12399, pp. 417–428. Springer, Berlin (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60508-7_23

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Bartocci, E., Manjunath, N., Mariani, L., et al.: CPSDebug: a tool for explanation of failures in cyber-physical systems. In: Khurshid, S., Pasareanu, C.S. (eds.) Proc. of ISSTA ’20: The 29th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, pp. 569–572. ACM, New York (2020). https://doi.org/10.1145/3395363.3404369

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Baumeister, J., Finkbeiner, B., Schwenger, M., et al.: FPGA stream-monitoring of real-time properties. ACM Trans. Embed. Comput. Syst. 18(5s), 88:1–88:24 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3358220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Belmonte, G., Ciancia, V., Latella, D., et al.: Voxlogica: a spatial model checker for declarative image analysis. In: Proc. of TACAS 2019: The 25th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems. LNCS, vol. 11427, pp. 281–298. Springer, Berlin (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17462-0_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Bortolussi, L., Milios, D., Sanguinetti, G.: U-Check: model checking and parameter synthesis under uncertainty. In: Proc. of QEST 2015: 12th Inter. Conf. on Quantitative Evaluation of Systems. LNCS, vol. 9259, pp. 89–104. Springer, Berlin (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22264-6_6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. City of Melbourne: Melbourne Bike Share Station Readings 2011-2017 [Dataset]. https://www.opendatanetwork.com/dataset/data.melbourne.vic.gov.au/74id-aqj9 (2018)

  21. Donzé, A.: Breach, a toolbox for verification and parameter synthesis of hybrid systems. In: Proc. of CAV 2010: The 22nd International Conference on Computer Aided Verification. LNCS, vol. 6174, pp. 167–170. Springer, Berlin (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14295-6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  22. Donzé, A., Maler, O.: Robust satisfaction of temporal logic over real-valued signals. In: Proc. of FORMATS, pp. 92–106. Springer, Berlin (2010)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Donzé, A., Clermont, G., Legay, A., et al.: Parameter synthesis in nonlinear dynamical systems: application to systems biology. In: Proc. of RECOMB 2009: The 13th Annual International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology. LNCS, vol. 5541, pp. 155–169. Springer, Berlin (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02008-7_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Donzé, A., Krogh, B., Rajhans, A.: Parameter synthesis for hybrid systems with an application to simulink models. In: Proc. of HSCC 2009: The 12th International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control. LNCS, vol. 5469, pp. 165–179. Springer, Berlin (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00602-9_12

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Donzé, A., Ferrère, T., Maler, O.: Efficient robust monitoring for STL. In: Proc. of CAV 2013: The 25th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification. LNCS, vol. 8044, pp. 264–279. Springer, Berlin (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39799-8_19

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Fainekos, G.E., Pappas, G.J.: Robustness of temporal logic specifications for continuous-time signals. Theor. Comput. Sci. 410(42), 4262–4291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2009.06.021

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. Grosu, R., Smolka, S.A., Corradini, F., et al.: Learning and detecting emergent behavior in networks of cardiac myocytes. Commun. ACM 52(3), 97–105 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1145/1467247.1467271

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Haghighi, I., Jones, A., Kong, Z., et al.: SpaTeL: a novel spatial-temporal logic and its applications to networked systems. In: Proc. of HSCC’15: The 18th International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, pp. 189–198. IEEE, New York (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2728606.2728633

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Hoxha, B., Abbas, H., Fainekos, G.E.: Benchmarks for temporal logic requirements for automotive systems. In: Proc. of ARCH@CPSWeek 2014: The 1st and 2nd International Workshop on Applied veRification for Continuous and Hybrid Systems. EPiC Series in Computing, vol. 34, pp. 25–30. EasyChair (2015). https://doi.org/10.29007/xwrs

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Jaksic, S., Bartocci, E., Grosu, R., et al.: Quantitative monitoring of STL with edit distance. Form. Methods Syst. Des. 53(1), 83–112 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10703-018-0319-x

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. Jaksic, S., Bartocci, E., Grosu, R., et al.: An algebraic framework for runtime verification. IEEE Trans. Comput.-Aided Des. Integr. Circuits Syst. 37(11), 2233–2243 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2018.2858460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Kane, A., Pirotta, E., Wischnewski, S., et al.: Spatio-temporal patterns of foraging behaviour in a wide-ranging seabird reveal the role of primary productivity in locating prey. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 646, 175–188 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Koymans, R.: Specifying real-time properties with metric temporal logic. Real-Time Syst. 2(4), 255–299 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01995674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Lemire, D.: Streaming maximum-minimum filter using no more than three comparisons per element. Nord. J. Comput. 13(4), 328–339 (2006)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  35. Leucker, M., Sánchez, C., Scheffel, T., et al.: Tessla: runtime verification of non-synchronized real-time streams. In: Proc. of SAC 2018: The 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 1925–1933. ACM, New York (2018). https://doi.org/10.1145/3167132.3167338

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Loreti, M., Hillston, J.: Modelling and analysis of collective adaptive systems with CARMA and its tools. In: Proc. of SFM 2016: Formal Methods for the Quantitative Evaluation of Collective Adaptive Systems – 16th International School on Formal Methods for the Design of Computer, Communication, and Software Systems. LNCS, vol. 9700, pp. 83–119. Springer, Berlin (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34096-8

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  37. Lukina, A., Esterle, L., Hirsch, C., et al.: ARES: adaptive receding-horizon synthesis of optimal plans. In: Proc. of TACAS 2017: The 23rd International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, pp. 286–302 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54580-5_17

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Ma, M., Bartocci, E., Lifland, E., et al.: SaSTL: spatial aggregation signal temporal logic for runtime monitoring in smart cities. In: 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, ICCPS 2020, Sydney, Australia, April 21–25, 2020, pp. 51–62. IEEE, New York (2020). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCPS48487.2020.00013

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  39. Maler, O., Ničković, D.: Monitoring temporal properties of continuous signals. In: Proc. of FORMATS/FTRTFT. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3253, pp. 152–166. Springer, Berlin (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-30206-3_12

    Chapter  MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. Maler, O., Ničković, D.: Monitoring properties of analog and mixed-signal circuits. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 15(3), 247–268 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-012-0247-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Moosbrugger, P., Rozier, K.Y., Schumann, J.: R2U2: monitoring and diagnosis of security threats for unmanned aerial systems. Form. Methods Syst. Des. 51(1), 31–61 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10703-017-0275-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Nenzi, L., Bortolussi, L., Loreti, M.: jSSTL – a tool to monitor spatio-temporal properties. In: Proc. of VALUETOOLS 2016: The 10th EAI International Conference on Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools, VALUETOOLS 2016. ACM, New York (2016). https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.25-10-2016.2266978

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  43. Nenzi, L., Bortolussi, L., Ciancia, V., et al.: Qualitative and quantitative monitoring of spatio-temporal properties with SSTL. Log. Methods Comput. Sci. 14(4), 1–38 (2018). https://doi.org/10.23638/LMCS-14(4:2)2018

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. Nenzi, L., Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., et al.: Monitoring spatio-temporal properties (invited tutorial). In: Proc. of RV 2020: The 20th International Conference on Runtime Verification. LNCS, vol. 12399, pp. 21–46. Springer, Berlin (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60508-7_2

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  45. Nenzi, L., Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L., et al.: A logic for monitoring dynamic networks of spatially-distributed cyber-physical systems. Log. Methods Comput. Sci. 18(1), 4:1–4:30 (2022). https://lmcs.episciences.org/8936. https://doi.org/10.46298/lmcs-18(1:4)2022

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  46. Nickovic, D., Yamaguchi, T.: RTAMT: online robustness monitors from STL. In: Proc. of ATVA 2020: The 18th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis – 18th International Symposium. LNCS, vol. 12302, pp. 564–571. Springer, Berlin (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59152-6

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  47. Nickovic, D., Lebeltel, O., Maler, O., et al.: AMT 2.0: qualitative and quantitative trace analysis with extended signal temporal logic. In: Proc. of TACAS 2018: The 24th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems. LNCS, vol. 10806, pp. 303–319. Springer, Berlin (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89963-3

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  48. Parr, T.: The Definitive ANTLR 4 Reference, 2nd edn. Pragmatic Bookshelf, Raleigh (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Ratasich, D., Khalid, F., Geissler, F., et al.: A roadmap towards resilient Internet of things for cyber-physical systems. IEEE Access 7, 13260–13283 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2891969

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Rodionova, A., Bartocci, E., Ničković, D., et al.: Temporal logic as filtering. In: Proc. of HSCC 2016, pp. 11–20. ACM, New York (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2883817.2883839

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  51. Sankaranarayanan, S., Kumar, S.A., Cameron, F., et al.: Model-based falsification of an artificial pancreas control system. SIGBED Rev. 14(2), 24–33 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3076125.3076128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Silvetti, S., Policriti, A., Bortolussi, L.: An active learning approach to the falsification of black box cyber-physical systems. In: Proc. of IFM 2017: The 13th International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods. LNCS, vol. 10510, pp. 3–17. Springer, Berlin (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66845-1

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  53. Ulus, D.: Montre: a tool for monitoring timed regular expressions. In: Proc. of CAV 2017: The 29th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification. LNCS, vol. 10426, pp. 329–335. Springer, Berlin (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63387-9

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  54. Yaghoubi, S., Fainekos, G.: Hybrid approximate gradient and stochastic descent for falsification of nonlinear systems. In: Proc. ACC 2017: The 2017 American Control Conference, pp. 529–534. IEEE, New York (2017). https://doi.org/10.23919/ACC.2017.7963007

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Trieste within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. This research has been partially supported by the Austrian FWF projects ZK-35 and W1255-N23, by the Italian PRIN project “SEDUCE” n. 2017TWRCNB and “IT-MaTTerS” n. 2017FTXR7S, and by the PNRR iNEST – Missione 4 Componente 2, Investimento 1.5 – D.D. 1058 \(23/06/2022\), ECS_00000043.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Laura Nenzi & Luca Bortolussi

  2. TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Laura Nenzi & Ezio Bartocci

  3. Esteco S.p.A., Trieste, Italy

    Simone Silvetti

  4. University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy

    Michele Loreti

Authors
  1. Laura Nenzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ezio Bartocci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Luca Bortolussi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Simone Silvetti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Michele Loreti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Nenzi.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nenzi, L., Bartocci, E., Bortolussi, L. et al. MoonLight: a lightweight tool for monitoring spatio-temporal properties. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 25, 503–517 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-023-00710-5

Download citation

  • Accepted: 30 May 2023

  • Published: 22 June 2023

  • Issue Date: August 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-023-00710-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Keywords

  • Spatio-temporal logic
  • Specification-based monitoring
Use our pre-submission checklist

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Advertisement

search

Navigation

  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us

Discover content

  • Journals A-Z
  • Books A-Z

Publish with us

  • Publish your research
  • Open access publishing

Products and services

  • Our products
  • Librarians
  • Societies
  • Partners and advertisers

Our imprints

  • Springer
  • Nature Portfolio
  • BMC
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • Apress
  • Your US state privacy rights
  • Accessibility statement
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Help and support

Not affiliated

Springer Nature

© 2023 Springer Nature