Walkinshaw, N. and Hierons, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-1446 (2023) Modelling second-order uncertainty in state machines. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 49 (5). pp. 3261-3276. ISSN 0098-5589
Abstract
Modelling the behaviour of state-based systems can be challenging, especially when the modeller is not entirely certain about its intended interactions with the user or the environment. Currently, it is possible to associate a stated level of uncertainty with a given event by attaching probabilities to transitions (producing ‘Probabilistic State Machines’). This captures the ‘First-order uncertainty’ - the (un-)certainty that a given event will occur. However, this does not permit the modeller to capture their own uncertainty (or lack thereof) about that stated probability - also known as ‘Second-order uncertainty’. In this paper we introduce a generalisation of probabilistic finite state machines that makes it possible to incorporate this important additional dimension of uncertainty. For this we adopt a formalism for reasoning about uncertainty called Subjective Logic. We present an algorithm to create these enhanced state machines automatically from a conventional state machine and a set of observed sequences. We show how this approach can be used for reverse-engineering predictive state machines from traces.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | State machine; Second order uncertainty; Subjective logic; Inference; Test prioritization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL EP/T030526/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Mar 2023 16:15 |
Last Modified: | 04 Sep 2023 13:53 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1109/TSE.2023.3250835 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:196630 |