Attributed Point-to-Point Communication in R-CHECK

Abstract

Autonomous multi-agent, or more generally, collective adaptive systems, use different modes of communication to support their autonomy and ease of interaction. In order to enable modelling and reasoning about such systems, we need frameworks that combine many forms of communication. R-CHECK is a modelling, simulation, and verification environment supporting the development of multi-agent systems, providing attributed channelled broadcast and multicast communication. That is, the communication is not merely derived based on connectivity to channels but in addition based on properties of targeted receiversȦnother common communication mode is point-to-point, wherein agents communicate with each other directly. Capturing point-to-point through R-CHECK’s multicast and broadcast is possible but cumbersome, inefficient, and prone to interference. Here, we extend R-CHECK with attributed point-to-point communication, which can be established based on identity or properties of participants. We also support model-checking of point-to-point by extending linear temporal logic with observation descriptors related to the participants in this communication mode. We argue that these extensions simplify the design of models, and demonstrate their benefits by means of an illustrative case study.