Unbounded, Fully Symbolic Model Checking of Timed Automata Using Boolean Methods

We present a new approach to unbounded, fully symbolic model checking of timed automata that is based on an efficient translation of quantified separation logic to quantified Boolean logic. Our technique preserves the interpretation of clocks over the reals and can check any property in timed computation tree logic. The core operations of eliminating quantifiers over real variables and deciding the validity of separation logic formulas are respectively translated to eliminating quantifiers on Boolean variables and checking Boolean satisfiability (SAT). We can thus leverage well-known techniques for Boolean formulas, including Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) and recent advances in SAT and SAT-based quantifier elimination. We present preliminary empirical results for a BDD-based implementation of our method.