A temporal model describes processes as a sequence of observable events characterised by distinguishable actions in time. Conformance checking allows these models to determine whether any sequence of temporally ordered and fully-observable events complies with their prescriptions. The latter aspect leads to Explainable and Trustworthy AI, as we can immediately assess the flaws in the recorded behaviours while suggesting any possible way to amend the wrongdoings. Recent findings on conformance checking and temporal learning lead to an interest in temporal models beyond the usual business process management community, thus including other domain areas such as Cyber Security, Industry 4.0, and e-Health. As current technologies for accessing this are purely formal and not ready for the real world returning large data volumes, the need to improve existing conformance checking and temporal model mining algorithms to make Explainable and Trustworthy AI more efficient and competitive is increasingly pressing. To effectively meet such demands, this paper offers KnoBAB, a novel business process management system for efficient Conformance Checking computations performed on top of a customised relational model. This architecture was implemented from scratch after following common practices in the design of relational database management systems. After defining our proposed temporal algebra for temporal queries (xtLTL_f), we show that this can express existing temporal languages over finite and non-empty traces such as LTL_f. This paper also proposes a parallelisation strategy for such queries, thus reducing conformance checking into an embarrassingly parallel problem leading to super-linear speed up. This paper also presents how a single xtLTL_f operator (or even entire sub-expressions) might be efficiently implemented via different algorithms, thus paving the way to future algorithmic improvements. Finally, our benchmarks highlight that our proposed implementation of xtLTL_f (KnoBAB) outperforms state-of-the-art conformance checking software running on LTL_f logic.

Current specification mining algorithms for temporal data rely on exhaustive search approaches, which become detrimental in real data settings where a plethora of distinct temporal behaviours are recorded over prolonged observations. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, Bolt2, based on a refined heuristic search of our previous algorithm, Bolt. Our experiments show that the proposed approach not only surpasses exhaustive search methods in terms of running time but also guarantees a minimal description that captures the overall temporal behaviour. This is achieved through a hypothesis lattice search that exploits support metrics. Our novel specification mining algorithm also outperforms the results achieved in our previous contribution.

This paper extends our seminal paper on KnoBAB for efficient Conformance Checking computations performed on top of a customised relational model. After defining our proposed temporal algebra for temporal queries (xtLTLf ), we show that this can express existing temporal languages over finite and non-empty traces such as LTLf . This paper also proposes a parallelisation strategy for such queries thus reducing conformance checking into an embarrassingly parallel problem leading to super-linear speed up. This paper also presents how a single xtLTLf operator (or even entire sub-expressions) might be efficiently implemented via different algorithms thus paving the way to future algorithmic improvements. Finally, our benchmarks remark that our proposed implementation of xtLTLf (KnoBAB) outperforms state-of-the-art conformance checking software running on LTLf logic, be it data or dateless.

Propositionalisation tampers the running time of state-of-the-art algorithms in declarative temporal model mining, as they exhaustively generate the clauses instantiated with the results of frequent itemset mining algorithms. Existing algorithms also exploit non-indexed data representations, thus negatively affecting the overall running time. This paper proposes a novel temporal model mining algorithm, Bolt, twinning confidence and support metrics as heuristics for candidate pruning with data structures enabling fast temporal data scanning. Bolt outperforms both state-of-the-art and renditions of existing mining algorithms using KnoBAB as a library.

Marine mammal monitoring, a growing field of research, is critical to cetacean conservation. Traditional ‘tagging’ attaches sensors such as GPS to such animals, though these are intrusive and susceptible to infection and, ultimately, death. A less intrusive approach exploits UUV commanded by a human operator above ground. The development of AI for autonomous underwater vehicle navigation models training environments in simulation, providing visual and physical fidelity suitable for sim-to-real transfer. Previous solutions, including UVMS and L2D, provide only satisfactory results, due to poor environment generalisation while sensors including sonar create environmental disturbances. Though rich in features, image data suffer from high dimensionality, providing a state space too great for many machine learning tasks. Underwater environments, susceptible to image noise, further complicate this issue. We propose SWiMM_2.0, coupling a Unity simulation modelling of a BLUEROV UUV with a DRL backend. A pre-processing step exploits a state-of-the-art CMVAE, reducing dimensionality while minimising data loss. Sim-to-real generalisation is validated by prior research. Custom behaviour metrics, unbiased to the naked eye and unprecedented in current ROV simulators, link our objectives ensuring successful ROV behaviour while tracking targets. Our experiments show that SAC maximises the former, achieving near-perfect behaviour while exploiting image data alone.