Coverage analysis of mobile agent trajectory via state-based opacity formulations

• Published in: Control engineering practice Vol. 19; no. 9; pp. 967 - 977
• Main Authors: Saboori, Anooshiravan, Hadjicostis, Christoforos N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2011
• Subjects: Agents (artificial intelligence); Discrete event systems; Information flow; Kinematics; Mathematical analysis; Monitoring; Opacity; Sensors; State estimation; System security; Trajectories; Discrete event systems; System security; Sensors; Information flow; State estimation
• ISSN: 0967-0661; 1873-6939
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conengprac.2010.12.003

This paper performs coverage analysis of mobile agent trajectory utilizing discrete event system models and employing state-based notions of opacity. Non-deterministic finite automata with partial observation on their transitions are used to simultaneously capture both the kinematic model of a mobile agent and the information that becomes available by a set of sensors that are deployed in a given environment. The information provided by the set of sensors is analyzed to track the passage of a mobile agent through certain secret (strategic) locations at specific time instants using state-space notions of opacity, which arise naturally as the way to capture/analyze secrecy and privacy considerations in such settings, and to answer related coverage questions. Realistic examples of two-dimensional environments equipped with sensors monitoring the location of a mobile agent that follows a known kinematic model are subsequently analyzed by adopting existing tools in the discrete event systems area. ► Employed notion of infinite-step opacity to capture information flow leakage. ► Motivated the application of infinite-step opacity and implemented verification algorithm. ► Modeled system as a finite automaton with partial observation of events. ► Implemented method for infinite-step opacity verification using MATLAB and C++.