Formal Verification of a Map Merging Protocol in the Multi-agent Programming Contest

Book chapter

Luckcuck, M. and Cardoso, R. C. 2022. Formal Verification of a Map Merging Protocol in the Multi-agent Programming Contest. in: Alechina, N., Baldoni, M. and Logan, B. (ed.) Engineering Multi-Agent Systems Switzerland Springer. pp. 198–217
AuthorsLuckcuck, M. and Cardoso, R. C.
EditorsAlechina, N., Baldoni, M. and Logan, B.
Abstract

Communication is a critical part of enabling multi-agent systems to cooperate. This means that applying formal methods to protocols governing communication within multi-agent systems provides useful confidence in its reliability. In this paper, we describe the formal verification of a complex communication protocol that coordinates agents merging maps of their environment. The protocol was used by the LFC team in the 2019 edition of the Multi-Agent Programming Contest (MAPC). Our specification of the protocol is written in Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP), which is a well-suited approach to specifying agent communication protocols due to its focus on concurrent communicating systems. We validate the specification’s behaviour using scenarios where the correct behaviour is known, and verify that eventually all the maps have merged.

KeywordsMulti-Agent Programming Contest; Communicating Sequential Processes; Formal Verification
Page range198–217
Year2022
Book titleEngineering Multi-Agent Systems
PublisherSpringer
Place of publicationSwitzerland
SeriesLecture Notes in Computer Science
ISBN9783030974565
9783030974572
ISSN0302-9743
1611-3349
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97457-2_12
Web address (URL)http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97457-2_12
https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3153451/
Output statusPublished
Publication dates10 Mar 2022
Publication process dates
Deposited31 Jan 2023
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