Automated Translation of Natural Language Requirements to Runtime Monitors

Abstract

Runtime verification (RV) enables monitoring systems at runtime, to detect property violations early and limit their potential consequences. This paper presents an end-to-end framework to capture requirements in structured natural language and generate monitors that capture their semantics faithfully. We leverage NASA’s Formal Requirement Elicitation Tool (fret), and the RV system Copilot. We extend fret with mechanisms to capture additional information needed to generate monitors, and introduce Ogma, a new tool to bridge the gap between fret and Copilot. With this framework, users can write requirements in an intuitive format and obtain real-time C monitors suitable for use in embedded systems. Our toolchain is available as open source.