February 26, 2026
Report

Resilience Through Data-Driven, Intelligent Designed Control: A Formal Methods Approach

Abstract

The PNNL and GTRI team developed a strategy to integrate temporal logic rule specification for detection of cyber-intrusion in the source code and control algorithms of CPS using advanced cyber-data. The GTRI team utilized its capabilities in rule synthesis and temporal logic specifications for software assurance and verification to detect and predict impact of cyber-intrusions and malware in the computational and control algorithms of cyber-physical systems. The team also developed a testing and verification approach that could be used to validate the suggested approach against a realistic use-case CPS showcasing improvements in system impact prediction performance. Temporal logic offers a compact expression of events in absolute and relative time and has a formalized translation to state machines. As such, temporal logic rules can feasibly be synthesized to any system as a rule engine, with the process being formally verified to be correct. The goal here is to utilize temporal logic rules to detect cyber-attacks and manipulations in the computational algorithms and provide real-time software assurance and verification guarantees.

Published: February 26, 2026

Citation

Nazir M., V.A. Adetola, and S.L. Litchfield. 2026. Resilience Through Data-Driven, Intelligent Designed Control: A Formal Methods Approach Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Research topics