Single-pass testing automata for LTL model checking

Abstract

Testing Automaton (TA) is a new kind of ω-automaton introduced by Hansen et al. [6] as an alternative to the standard B¨uchi Automata (BA) for the verification of stutter-invariant LTL properties. Geldenhuys and Hansen [5] shown later how to use TA in the automatatheoretic approach to LTL model checking. They propose a TA-based approach using a verification algorithm that requires two searches (two passes) and compare its performance against the BA approach. This paper improves their work by proposing a transformation of TA into a normal form (STA) that only requires a single one-pass verification algorithm. The resulting automaton is called Single-pass Testing Automaton (STA). We have implemented the STA approach in Spot model checking library. We are thus able to compare it with the BA and TA approaches. These experiments show that STA compete well on our examples.