SMT-Based Model Checking of Industrial Simulink Models

Abstract

. The development of embedded systems requires formal analysis of models such as those described with MATLAB/Simulink. How-ever, the increasing complexity of industrial models makes analysis dif-ficult. This paper proposes a model checking method for Simulink models using SMT solvers. The proposed method aims at (1) automated, efficient and comprehensible verification of complex models, (2) numeri-cally accurate analysis of models, and (3) demonstrating the analysis of Simulink models using an SMT solver (we use Z3). It first encodes a target model into a predicate logic formula in the domain of mathematical arithmetic and bit vectors. We explore how to encode various Simulink blocks exactly. Then, the method verifies a given invariance property using the k -induction-based algorithm that extracts a subsystem involving the target block and unrolls the execution paths incrementally. In the experiment, we applied the proposed method and other tools to a set of models and properties. Our method successfully verified most of the properties including those unverified with other tools.