17446260
Genetic Programming with Fitness Based on Model Checking
Model checking is a way of analysing programs and program-like structures to decide whether they satisfy a list of temporal logic statements describing desired behaviour. In this paper we apply this to the fitness checking stage in an evolution strategy for learning finite state machines. We give experimental results consisting of learning the control program for a vending machine.
31047077
Deriving Genetic Programming Fitness Properties by Static Analysis
The aim of this paper is to introduce the idea of using static analysis of computer programs as a way of measuring fitness in genetic programming. Such techniques extract information about the programs without explicitly running them, and in particular they infer properties which hold across the whole of the input space of a program. This can be applied to measure fitness, and has a number of advantages over measuring fitness by running members of the population on test cases. The most important advantage is that if a solution is found then it is possible to formally trust that solution to be correct across all inputs. This paper introduces these ideas, discusses various ways in which they could be applied, discusses the type of problems for which they are appropriate, and ends by giving a simple test example and some questions for future research.
8792186
Artificial Immune Systems and the Grand Challenge for Non-classical Computation
The UK Grand Challenges for Computing Research is an initiative to map out certain key areas that could be used to help drive research over the next 10–15 years. One of the identified Grand Challenges is Non-Classical Computation, which examines many of the fundamental assumptions of Computer Science, and asks what would result if they were systematically broken. In this discussion paper, we explain how the sub-discipline of Artificial Immune Systems sits squarely in the province of this particular Grand Challenge, and we identify certain key questions.
15050037
Journeys in non-classical computation I: A grand challenge for computing research
1. The challengeA gateway event [35] is a change to a system that leads to the possibility of huge increases inkinds and levels of complexity. It opens up a whole new kind of phase space to the system’sdynamics.Gatewayeventsduringevolutionoflifeonearthincludetheappearanceofeukaryotes(organisms with a cell nucleus), an oxygen atmosphere, multi-cellular organisms and grass.Gatewayeventsduringthedevelopmentofmathematicsincludeeachinventionofanewclassofnumbers (negative, irrational, imaginary, ...), and dropping Euclid’s parallel postulate.A gateway event produces a profound and fundamental change to the system: Oncethrough the gateway, life is never the same again. We are currently poised on the threshold ofa signiﬁcant gateway event in computation: That of breaking free from many of our current“classical computational” assumptions. Our Grand Challenge for computer science isto journey through the gateway event obtained by breaking our current classicalcomputational assumptions, and thereby develop a mature science of Non-ClassicalComputation2. Journeys versus goals
30236643
Towards a Prehistory of Evolutionary and Adaptive Computation in Music
A number of systems have been created which apply genetic algorithms, cellular automata, artificial life, agents, and other evolutionary and adaptive computation ideas in the creation of music. The aim of this paper is to examine the context in which such systems arose by looking for features of experimental music which prefigure the ideas used in such systems. A number of ideas are explored: the use of randomness in music, the view of compositions as parameterized systems, the idea of emergent structure in music and the idea of musicians performing the role of reactive agents.
16043224
Journeys in non-classical computation II: initial journeys and waypoints
†University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD, UK‡University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbourlane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK{University of Portsmouth, Buckingham Building, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3WE, UK§University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NZ, UKkUniversity of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OHE, UK#University of Exeter, North Cote House, The Queen’s Drive, Exeter E4 4QJ, UK
31563337
The trees for which maximum multiplicity implies the simplicity of other eigenvalues
Among those real symmetric matrices whose graph is a given tree T, the maximum multiplicity is known to be the path cover number of T. An explicit characterization is given for those trees for which whenever the maximum multiplicity is attained, all other multiplicities are 1.
14968728
Using Temporal Logic to Support the Specification and Prototyping of Interactive Control Systems
Abstract Accidents at Flixborough, Seveso, Bhopal, Three Mile Island, Windscale and Chernobyl have led to increasing concern over the safety and reliability of control systems. Human factors specialists have responded to this concern and have proposed a number of techniques which support the operator of such applications. Unfortunately, this work has not been accompanied by the provision of adequate tools which might enable a designer to carry it beyond the “laboratory bench” and on to the “shop floor”. The following paper exploits formal, mathematically based specification techniques to provide such a tool. Previous weaknesses of abstract specifications are identified and resolved. In particular, they have failed to capture the temporal properties which human factors specialists identify as crucial to the success or failure of interactive control systems. They also provide the non-formalist with an extremely poor impression of what it would be to like to interact with potential implementations. Temporal logic avoids these deficiencies. It can make explicit the sequential information which may be implicit within a design. Executable subsets of this formalization support prototyping and this provides a means of assessing the qualitative “look and feel” of potential implementations. A variety of presentation strategies, including structural decomposition and dialogue cycles, have been specified and incorporated directly into prototypes using temporal logic. Prelog, a tool for the Presentation and REndering of LOGic specifications, has been developed and its implementation is described.
8317114
Decision theory and safety-critical interfaces
Risk assessment techniques are being used to support the engineering of complex, safety-critical systems. They help to identify those situations that pose the greatest threat to an application. They can also be used to inform interface development. For example, operators must be presented with additional contextual information during infrequent, high-cost failures. Many risk assessment techniques cannot represent the temporal properties that affect usability. Few techniques provide means of reasoning about user input or output. This paper presents means of overcoming these limitations. It is argued that temporal logic can be used to represent sequential and concurrent properties of interaction. The same notation can also be used to specify presentation requirements. Temporal logic does not, however, provide means of representing risk. Decision theory is recruited to introduce probability and cost into the notation. The logic is then applied to reason about the different effects that low frequency, high cost failures have upon a user interface. A limitation of this approach is that the extended logic provides little impression of what it would be like to interact with a stochastic application. Simulation tools have been developed to avoid this limitation.
52833794
The Role of Night Vision Equipment in Military Incidents and Accidents
Night vision devices provide enormous benefits. They enable personnel to carry out operations under conditions that would not otherwise be possible. However, these benefits carry considerable risks. For instance, individuals often become over confident about their ability to use image intensification and infrared devices. In consequence, the use of night vision equipment is an increasingly common factor in military incidents and accidents. This paper uses an analysis of incident and accident data to identify requirements for the successful deployment of night vision equipment. It is argued that these applications must be integrated more closely with existing navigational systems. The successful application of this technology also depends upon adequate risk assessment and team-based training.
47143488
The Evaluation of User Interface Notations
Over the last decade a wide range of graphical, tabular and textual notations have been proposed to support the design of human-computer interfaces. These notations are intended to strip away the clutter of implementation details that frequently obscure interaction properties. Unfortunately, relatively little work has been done to evaluate the usability of these notations for ‘real-world’ interfaces. We have, therefore, conducted an empirical evaluation of the User Action Notation (UAN), State Transition Networks (STN) and temporal logic ‘in the wild’. By this we mean that our subjects were drawn from realistic samples of users and designers. We also presented our subjects with realistic descriptions of two user interfaces. This avoids a weakness of previous investigations that have used ‘toy examples’. The results of our investigation show a strong preference amongst our subjects for the use of natural language descriptions. More surprisingly, our results also suggest a link between the frequency of comprehension errors and positive attitude statements towards particular notations. In other words, our subjects made most errors with the notations that they liked the best. This suggests that while graphical notations, such as state transition networks, have a strong intuitive appeal they may also create significant problems for real-world development tasks.