Knowledge as Strategic Ability

The ultimate goal of our research is to develop techniques for model checking knowledge properties of multi-agent systems. ATEL, an extension of the Alternating-time Temporal Logic of Alur et al, is a logic for specifying epistemic and strategic properties of such systems. We present a technique for reducing the ATEL model checking problem to one of model checking in ATL, whereby epistemic relations are explicitly encoded in ATL models as as dynamic transitions. The techniques is illustrated by means of a knowledge game, which is used as a running example throughout the paper.