Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Introduction to Active Automata Learning from a Practical Perspective

  • Chapter
Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems (SFM 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 6659))

Abstract

In this chapter we give an introduction to active learning of Mealy machines, an automata model particularly suited for modeling the behavior of realistic reactive systems. Active learning is characterized by its alternation of an exploration phase and a testing phase. During exploration phases so-called membership queries are used to construct hypothesis models of a system under learning. In testing phases so-called equivalence queries are used to compare respective hypothesis models to the actual system. These two phases are iterated until a valid model of the target system is produced.

We will step-wisely elaborate on this simple algorithmic pattern, its underlying correctness arguments, its limitations, and, in particular, ways to overcome apparent hurdles for practical application. This should provide students and outsiders of the field with an intuitive account of the high potential of this challenging research area in particular concerning the control and validation of evolving reactive systems.

This work is supported by the European FP 7 project CONNECT (IST 231167).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Aarts, F., Jonsson, B., Uijen, J.: Generating Models of Infinite-State Communication Protocols Using Regular Inference with Abstraction. In: Petrenko, A., Simão, A., Maldonado, J.C. (eds.) ICTSS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6435, pp. 188–204. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Aarts, F., Vaandrager, F.: Learning I/O Automata. In: Gastin, P., Laroussinie, F. (eds.) CONCUR 2010. LNCS, vol. 6269, pp. 71–85. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Angluin, D.: Learning Regular Sets from Queries and Counterexamples. Information and Computation 75(2), 87–106 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Balcázar, J.L., Díaz, J., Gavaldà, R.: Algorithms for Learning Finite Automata from Queries: A Unified View. In: Advances in Algorithms, Languages, and Complexity, pp. 53–72 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bennaceur, A., Blair, G.S., Chauvel, F., Georgantas, N., Grace, P., Howar, F., Inverardi, P., Issarny, V., Paolucci, M., Pathak, A., Spalazzese, R., Steffen, B., Souville, B.: Towards an Architecture for Runtime Interoperability. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds.) ISoLA 2010. LNCS, vol. 6416, pp. 206–220. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Berg, T., Grinchtein, O., Jonsson, B., Leucker, M., Raffelt, H., Steffen, B.: On the correspondence between conformance testing and regular inference. In: Cerioli, M. (ed.) FASE 2005. LNCS, vol. 3442, pp. 175–189. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Berg, T., Jonsson, B., Raffelt, H.: Regular inference for state machines with parameters. In: Baresi, L., Heckel, R. (eds.) FASE 2006. LNCS, vol. 3922, pp. 107–121. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. Berg, T., Jonsson, B., Raffelt, H.: Regular inference for state machines using domains with equality tests. In: Fiadeiro, J.L., Inverardi, P. (eds.) FASE 2008. LNCS, vol. 4961, pp. 317–331. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Bertolino, A., Calabro, A., Di Giandomenico, F., Nostro, N.: Dependability and Performance Assessment of Dynamic CONNECTed Systems. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. Blair, G.S., Paolucci, M., Grace, P., Georgantas, N.: Interoperability in Complex Distributed Systems. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bohlin, T., Jonsson, B.: Regular Inference for Communication Protocol Entities. Technical report, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Schweden (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bollig, B., Katoen, J.-P., Kern, C., Leucker, M.: Replaying play in and play out: Synthesis of design models from scenarios by learning. In: Grumberg, O., Huth, M. (eds.) TACAS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4424, pp. 435–450. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Bollig, B., Katoen, J.-P., Kern, C., Leucker, M.: smyle: A tool for synthesizing distributed models from scenarios by learning. In: van Breugel, F., Chechik, M. (eds.) CONCUR 2008. LNCS, vol. 5201, pp. 162–166. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Broy, M., Jonsson, B., Katoen, J.-P., Leucker, M., Pretschner, A.: Model-Based Testing of Reactive Systems. LNCS, vol. 3472. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Chow, T.S.: Testing Software Design Modeled by Finite-State Machines. IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering 4(3), 178–187 (1978)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Cobleigh, J.M., Giannakopoulou, D., Păsăreanu, C.S.: Learning assumptions for compositional verification. In: Garavel, H., Hatcliff, J. (eds.) TACAS 2003. LNCS, vol. 2619, pp. 331–346. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Combe, D., de la Higuera, C., Janodet, J.-C.: Zulu: an Interactive Learning Competition. In: Yli-Jyrä, A., Kornai, A., Sakarovitch, J., Watson, B. (eds.) FSMNLP 2009. LNCS, vol. 6062, Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. de la Higuera, C.: Grammatical Inference: Learning Automata and Grammars. Cambridge University Press, New York (2010)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Esparza, J., Leucker, M., Schlund, M.: Learning Workflow Petri Nets. In: Lilius, J., Penczek, W. (eds.) PETRI NETS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6128, pp. 206–225. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  20. Fujiwara, S., von Bochmann, G., Khendek, F., Amalou, M., Ghedamsi, A.: Test Selection Based on Finite State Models. IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering 17(6), 591–603 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Grace, P., Georgantas, N., Bennaceur, A., Blair, G., Chauvel, F., Issarny, V., Paolucci, M., Saadi, R., Souville, B., Sykes, D.: The CONNECT Architecture. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  22. Grinchtein, O., Jonsson, B., Pettersson, P.: Inference of event-recording automata using timed decision trees. In: Baier, C., Hermanns, H. (eds.) CONCUR 2006. LNCS, vol. 4137, pp. 435–449. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Hagerer, A., Hungar, H., Niese, O., Steffen, B.: Model generation by moderated regular extrapolation. LNCS, pp. 80–95. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  24. Hagerer, A., Margaria, T., Niese, O., Steffen, B., Brune, G., Ide, H.-D.: Efficient regression testing of CTI-systems: Testing a complex call-center solution. Annual Review of Communication, Int. Engineering Consortium (IEC) 55, 1033–1040 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Hopcroft, J.E.: An n log n algorithm for minimizing states in a finite automaton. Technical report, Stanford, CA, USA (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hopcroft, J.E., Motwani, R., Ullman, J.D.: Introduction to automata theory, languages, and computation, 2nd edn. Addison-Wesley series in computer science. Addison-Wesley-Longman, Amsterdam (2001)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. Howar, F., Jonsson, B., Merten, M., Steffen, B., Cassel, S.: On Handling Data in Automata Learning. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds.) ISoLA 2010. LNCS, vol. 6416, pp. 221–235. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  28. Howar, F., Steffen, B., Merten, M.: From ZULU to RERS - Lessons Learned in the ZULU Challenge. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds.) ISoLA 2010. LNCS, vol. 6415, pp. 687–704. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  29. Howar, F., Steffen, B., Merten, M.: Automata learning with automated alphabet abstraction refinement. In: Jhala, R., Schmidt, D. (eds.) VMCAI 2011. LNCS, vol. 6538, pp. 263–277. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Howar, F., Steffen, B., Merten, M., Margaria, T.: Practical Aspects of Active Learning. FMICS Handbook on Industrial Critical Systems. Wiley, Chichester (to appear, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Hungar, H., Niese, O., Steffen, B.: Domain-specific optimization in automata learning. In: Hunt Jr., W.A., Somenzi, F. (eds.) CAV 2003. LNCS, vol. 2725, pp. 315–327. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Hungar, H., Steffen, B.: Behavior-based model construction. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 6(1), 4–14 (2004)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  33. Inverardi, P., Spalazzese, R., Tivoli, M.: Application-layer Connector Synthesis. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  34. Issarny, V., Bennaceur, A., Bromberg, Y.-D.: Middleware-layer Connector Synthesis. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Issarny, V., Steffen, B., Jonsson, B., Blair, G.S., Grace, P., Kwiatkowska, M.Z., Calinescu, R., Inverardi, P., Tivoli, M., Bertolino, A., Sabetta, A.: CONNECT Challenges: Towards Emergent Connectors for Eternal Networked Systems. In: ICECCS, pp. 154–161 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Jonsson, B.: Machine Learning and Data. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Jung, G., Margaria, T., Wagner, C., Bakera, M.: Formalizing a Methodology for Design- and Runtime Self-Healing. In: IEEE International Workshop on Engineering of Autonomic and Autonomous Systems, pp. 106–115 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Kearns, M.J., Vazirani, U.V.: An Introduction to Computational Learning Theory. MIT Press, Cambridge (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kwiatkowska, M., Norman, G., Parker, D., Qu, H.: Assume-Guarantee Verification for Probabilistic Systems. In: Esparza, J., Majumdar, R. (eds.) TACAS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6015, pp. 23–37. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  40. Maler, O., Pnueli, A.: On the Learnability of Infinitary Regular Sets. Information and Computation 118(2), 316–326 (1995)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  41. Margaria, T., Niese, O., Raffelt, H., Steffen, B.: Efficient test-based model generation for legacy reactive systems. In: HLDVT 2004: Proceedings of the Ninth IEEE International High-Level Design Validation and Test Workshop, pp. 95–100. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  42. Margaria, T., Raffelt, H., Steffen, B.: Knowledge-based relevance filtering for efficient system-level test-based model generation. Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering 1(2), 147–156 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Merten, M., Steffen, B., Howar, F., Margaria, T.: Next Generation LearnLib. In: Abdulla, P.A., Leino, K.R.M. (eds.) TACAS 2011. LNCS, vol. 6605, pp. 220–223. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  44. Nerode, A.: Linear Automaton Transformations. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society 9(4), 541–544 (1958)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  45. Niese, O.: An Integrated Approach to Testing Complex Systems. PhD thesis, University of Dortmund, Germany (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Pasareanu, C.S., Giannakopoulou, D., Bobaru, M.G., Cobleigh, J.M., Barringer, H.: Learning to divide and conquer: applying the L* algorithm to automate assume-guarantee reasoning. Formal Methods in System Design 32(3), 175–205 (2008)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  47. Peled, D., Vardi, M.Y., Yannakakis, M.: Black Box Checking. In: Wu, J., Chanson, S.T., Gao, Q. (eds.) Proc. FORTE 1999, pp. 225–240. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  48. Raffelt, H., Margaria, T., Steffen, B., Merten, M.: Hybrid test of web applications with webtest. In: TAV-WEB 2008: Proceedings of the 2008 Workshop on Testing, Analysis, and Verification of Web Services and Applications, pp. 1–7. ACM, New York (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  49. Raffelt, H., Merten, M., Steffen, B., Margaria, T.: Dynamic testing via automata learning. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 11(4), 307–324 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Raffelt, H., Steffen, B., Berg, T., Margaria, T.: LearnLib: a framework for extrapolating behavioral models. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 11(5), 393–407 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Rivest, R.L., Schapire, R.E.: Inference of finite automata using homing sequences. Inf. Comput. 103(2), 299–347 (1993)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  52. Shahbaz, M., Groz, R.: Inferring Mealy Machines. In: Cavalcanti, A., Dams, D.R. (eds.) FM 2009. LNCS, vol. 5850, pp. 207–222. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  53. Shahbaz, M., Li, K., Groz, R.: Learning and Integration of Parameterized Components Through Testing. In: Petrenko, A., Veanes, M., Tretmans, J., Grieskamp, W. (eds.) TestCom/FATES 2007. LNCS, vol. 4581, pp. 319–334. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  54. Shahbaz, M., Li, K., Groz, R.: Learning Parameterized State Machine Model for Integration Testing. In: Proc. 31st Annual Int. Computer Software and Applications Conf., vol. 2, pp. 755–760. IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Steffen, B., Margaria, T., Nagel, R., Jörges, S., Kubczak, C.: Model-driven development with the jABC. In: Bin, E., Ziv, A., Ur, S. (eds.) HVC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4383, pp. 92–108. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  56. Tretmans, J.: Model Based Testing with Labelled Transition Systems. In: Hierons, R.M., Bowen, J.P., Harman, M. (eds.) FORTEST 2008. LNCS, vol. 4949, pp. 1–38. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  57. Tretmans, J.: Testing Supported by Learning. Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair for Programming Systems, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, D-44227, Germany

    Bernhard Steffen, Falk Howar & Maik Merten

Authors
  1. Bernhard Steffen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Falk Howar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Maik Merten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Fondamenti, Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Piazza della Repubblica 13, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Marco Bernardo

  2. INRIA Paris-Rocquencourt, France

    Valérie Issarny

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Steffen, B., Howar, F., Merten, M. (2011). Introduction to Active Automata Learning from a Practical Perspective. In: Bernardo, M., Issarny, V. (eds) Formal Methods for Eternal Networked Software Systems. SFM 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6659. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21455-4_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21455-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-21454-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-21455-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation