Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control

This class presents recent advances in the theory for control, verification, and simulation of hybrid dynamical systems, and shows the application of the theory to the design of the control architecture for complex, large scale systems. Hybrid dynamical systems are continuous time, continuous variable systems with a phased operation. The phases of operation capture the system’s discrete event or linguistic behavior, while the continuous variable dynamics capture the system’s detailed or “lowerlevel” behavior. The two behaviors influence each other. Hierarchical organization is implicit in hybrid systems, since the discrete event dynamics represent planning which is based on an abstraction of the continuous dynamics. Control systems design based on hybrid models consist of three parts: