%0 Conference Paper
%A Lluch-Lafuente, Alberto
%B Workshop on Model Checking and Artificial Intelligence (MoChArt-03)
%C Acapulco, Mexico
%D 2003
%F eprints:1017
%T Symmetry reduction and heuristic search for error detection in model checking
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1017/
%X The state explosion problem is the main limitation of model checking. Symmetries in the system being verified can be exploited in order to avoid this problem by defining an equivalence (symmetry) relation on the states of the system, which induces a semantically equivalent quotient system of smaller size. On the other hand, heuristic search algorithms can be applied to improve the bug finding capabilities of model checking. Such algorithms use  heuristic functions to guide the exploration. Bestfirst  is used for accelerating the search, while A* guarantees optimal error trails if combined with admissible estimates. We analyze some aspects of combining both approaches, concentrating on the problem of finding the optimal path to the equivalence class of a given error state. Experimental  results evaluate our approach.