Verifying the structure and behavior in UML/OCL models using satisfiability solvers

Abstract

Due to the ever increasing complexity of embedded and cyber-physical systems, corresponding design solutions relying on modelling languages such as Unified Modelling Language (UML)/Object Constraint Language (OCL) find increasing attention. Due to the recent success of formal verification techniques, UML/OCL models also allow to verify and/or check certain properties of a given model in early stages of the design phase. To this end, different approaches for verification and validation have been proposed. In this work, the authors motivate, define, and describe different verification tasks for structural, as well as behavioural UML/OCL models that can be solved using solvers for Boolean satisfiability. They describe how these verification tasks can be translated into a symbolic formulation which is passed to off-the-shelf solvers afterwards. The obtained results enable designers to draw conclusions about the correctness of the considered model.

Keywords

• Unified Modeling Language
• computability
• formal verification
• Boolean functions
• Unified Modelling Language/Object Constraint Language model
• satisfiability solvers
• formal verification techniques
• validation task
• structural UML/OCL model
• behavioural UML/OCL model
• Boolean satisfiability
• symbolic formulation
• off-the-shelf solvers