On the revision problem of specification automata

One of the important challenges in robotics is the automatic synthesis of provably correct controllers from high level specifications. One class of such algorithms operates in two steps: (i) high level discrete controller synthesis and (ii) low level continuous controller synthesis. In this class of algorithms, when phase (i) fails, then it is desirable to provide feedback to the designer in the form of revised specifications that can be achieved by the system. In this paper, we address the minimal revision problem for specification automata. That is, we construct automata specifications that are as “close” as possible to the initial user intent, by removing the minimum number of constraints from the specification that cannot be satisfied. We prove that the problem is computationally hard and we encode it as a satisfiability problem. Then, the minimal revision problem can be solved by utilizing efficient SAT solvers.