Abstract
Over the past decade Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) have emerged as a successful approach to develop distributed applications. In recent years proposals have been made to extend MAS models with probabilistic behavior. Languages to reason about such systems were presented in order to deal with uncertainty that can be encountered in practical application domains. While in recent works model checking techniques have been successfully applied for verifying knowledge in classical MAS, no methods for verifying knowledge in probabilistic MAS yet exist. This paper proposes such a model checking approach for probabilistic MAS. The approach comprises a compositional modeling process, a modal logic with operators for the specification of epistemic and temporal properties, the corresponding model checking procedure, and an outline of how these techniques can be implemented into existing model checking tools. The advantages of the chosen design include the possibility to analyze the MAS both from the global perspective as well as from the perspective of the agents, and the polynomial complexity of the model checking algorithm.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arus, C., Celda, B., Dasmahaptra, S., Dupplaw, D., Gonzalez-Velez, H., Huffel, S.V., Lewis, P., Ariet, M.L.i., Mier, M., Peet, A., Robles, M.: On the design of a web-based decision support system for brain tumour diagnosis using distributed agents. In: Proc. IEEE/WIC/ACM Int. Conf. on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, pp. 208–211 (2006)
Duo, W., Yi, L., Wenhui, L., Qi, J., Rongqing, Y.: Intelligent multi-agent based information system of business process management. In: Pacific-Asia Workshop on Computational Intelligence and Industrial Application, pp. 469–473 (2008)
Gleizes, M.P., Link-Pezet, J., Glize, P.: An adaptive multi-agent tool for electronic commerce. In: IEEE Int. Workshops on Enabling Technologies, vol. 1, pp. 59–66 (2000)
Halpern, J.Y., Tuttle, M.R.: Knowledge, probability, and adversaries. J. ACM 40(4), 917–960 (1993)
Wooldridge, M.J.: Introduction to Multiagent Systems. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Chichester (2001)
Lehmann, D., Shelah, S.: Reasoning with time and chance. Information and Control 53, 165–198 (1982)
Fagin, R., Halpern, J.Y., Moses, Y.: Reasoning about knowledge. MIT Press, Cambridge (1995)
der Hoek, W.V., Wooldridge, M.: Cooperation, knowledge and time: Alternating-time temporal epistemic logic and its applications. Studia Logica 75(1), 125–157 (2003)
Halpern, J.Y.: Reasoning about Uncertainty. MIT Press, Cambridge (2003)
Grünwald, P., Halpern, J.Y.: A game-theoretic analysis of updating sets of probabilities. In: Proc. 24th Conf. in Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, pp. 240–247 (2008)
Fagin, R., Halpern, J.Y.: Reasoning about knowledge and probability. J. ACM 41(2), 340–367 (1994)
de Carvalho Ferreira, N., Fisher, M., van der Hoek, W.: Specifying and reasoning about uncertain agents. International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 49(1), 35–51 (2008)
Kooi, B.P.: Probabilistic dynamic epistemic logic. J. of Logic, Lang. and Inf. 12(4), 381–408 (2003)
Lomuscio, A., Pecheur, C., Raimondi, F.: Automatic verification of knowledge and time with NuSMV. In: Proc. 20th IJCAI, pp. 1384–1389 (2007)
Lomuscio, A., Raimondi, F.: Model checking knowledge, strategies, and games in multi-agent systems. In: Proc. 5th Int. Joint Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 161–168. ACM Press, New York (2006)
Wu, L., Su, K., Chen, Q.: Model checking temporal logics of knowledge and its application in security verification. In: Hao, Y., Liu, J., Wang, Y.-P., Cheung, Y.-m., Yin, H., Jiao, L., Ma, J., Jiao, Y.-C. (eds.) CIS 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3801, pp. 349–354. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Gammie, P., van der Meyden, R.: Mck: Model checking the logic of knowledge. In: Alur, R., Peled, D.A. (eds.) CAV 2004. LNCS, vol. 3114, pp. 479–483. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Kacprzak, M., Lomuscio, A., Penczek, W.: Verification of multiagent systems via unbounded model checking. In: Proc. 3rd Int. Joint Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, pp. 638–645. ACM Press, New York (2004)
van der Hoek, W., Wooldridge, M.: Model checking knowledge and time. In: Bošnački, D., Leue, S. (eds.) SPIN 2002. LNCS, vol. 2318, pp. 95–111. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Hinton, A., Kwiatkowska, M.Z., Norman, G., Parker, D.: PRISM: A tool for automatic verification of probabilistic systems. In: Hermanns, H., Palsberg, J. (eds.) TACAS 2006. LNCS, vol. 3920, pp. 441–444. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
van der Meyden, R., Shilov, N.V.: Model checking knowledge and time in systems with perfect recall (extended abstract). In: Pandu Rangan, C., Raman, V., Sarukkai, S. (eds.) FST TCS 1999. LNCS, vol. 1738, pp. 432–445. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Su, K., Sattar, A., Luo, X.: Model checking temporal logics of knowledge via OBDDs. The Computer Journal 50(4), 403–420 (2007)
Cimatti, A., Clarke, E., Giunchiglia, E., Giunchiglia, F., Pistore, M., Roveri, M., Sebastiani, R., Tacchella, A.: NuSMV 2: An opensource tool for symbolic model checking. In: Brinksma, E., Larsen, K.G. (eds.) CAV 2002. LNCS, vol. 2404, p. 359. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Dekhtyar, M.I., Dikovsky, A.J., Valiev, M.K.: Temporal verification of probabilistic multi-agent systems. In: Avron, A., Dershowitz, N., Rabinovich, A. (eds.) Pillars of Computer Science. LNCS, vol. 4800, pp. 256–265. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Rutten, J., Kwiatkowska, M.Z., Norman, G., Parker, D.: Mathematical Techniques for Analyzing Concurrent and Probabilistic Systems. CRM Monograph Series, vol. 23. American Mathematical Society, Providence (2004)
Hermanns, H.: Interactive Markov Chains: The Quest for Quantified Quality. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Katoen, J.P., Kwiatkowska, M.Z., Norman, G., Parker, D.: Faster and symbolic CTMC model checking. In: de Luca, L., Gilmore, S. (eds.) PROBMIV 2001, PAPM-PROBMIV 2001, and PAPM 2001. LNCS, vol. 2165, pp. 23–38. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)
Hansson, H., Jonsson, B.: A logic for reasoning about time and reliability. Formal Aspects of Computing 6(5), 512–535 (1994)
Aziz, A., Singhal, V., Balarin, F.: It usually works: The temporal logic of stochastic systems. In: Wolper, P. (ed.) CAV 1995. LNCS, vol. 939, pp. 155–165. Springer, Heidelberg (1995)
Emerson, E.A., Mok, A.K., Sistla, A.P., Srinivasan, J.: Quantitative temporal reasoning. In: Clarke, E., Kurshan, R.P. (eds.) CAV 1990. LNCS, vol. 531, pp. 136–145. Springer, Heidelberg (1991)
Ben-Ari, M., Manna, Z., Pnueli, A.: The temporal logic of branching time. In: Proc. 8th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, pp. 164–176. ACM Press, New York (1981)
Peled, D.A., Clarke, E.M., Grumberg, O.: Model Checking. MIT Press, Cambridge (2000)
Ciesinski, F., Größer, M.: On probabilistic computation tree logic. In: Baier, C., Haverkort, B.R., Hermanns, H., Katoen, J.-P., Siegle, M. (eds.) Validation of Stochastic Systems. LNCS, vol. 2925, pp. 147–188. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Vardi, M.Y.: Automatic verification of probabilistic concurrent finite state programs. In: Proc. 26th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, pp. 327–338. IEEE, Los Alamitos (1985)
Delgado, C.: Modelagem e verificação de propriedades epistêmicas em sistemas multi-agentes. PhD thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Delgado, C., Benevides, M. (2009). Verification of Epistemic Properties in Probabilistic Multi-Agent Systems. In: Braubach, L., van der Hoek, W., Petta, P., Pokahr, A. (eds) Multiagent System Technologies. MATES 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5774. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04143-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04143-3_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04142-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04143-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)