Hybrid Systems

Hybrid systems are networks of interacting digital and analog devices. Control systems for inherently unstable aircraft and computer aided manufacturing are typical applications for hybrid systems, but due to the rapid development of processor and circuit technology modern cars and consumer electronics use software to control physical processes. The identifying characteristic of hybrid systems is that they incorporate both continuous components governed by differential equations and also digital components - digital computers, sensors, and actuators controlled by programs. This volume of invited refereed papers is inspired by a workshop on the Theory of Hybrid Systems, held at the Technical University, Lyngby, Denmark, in October 1992, and by a prior Hybrid Systems Workshop, held at Cornell University, USA, in June 1991, organized by R.L. Grossman and A. Nerode. Some papers are the final versions of papers presented at these workshops and some are invited papers from other researchers who were not able to attend these workshops.