Process Algebraic Approach to Hybrid Systems

Process algebra is a theoretical framework for the modelling and analysis of the behaviour of concurrent discrete event systems that has been developed within computer science in past quarter century. It has generated a deeper understanding of the nature of concepts such as observable behaviour in the presence of nondeterminism, system composition by interconnection of concurrent component systems, and notions of behavioural equivalence of such systems. It has contributed fundamental concepts such as bisimulation, and has been succesfully used in a wide range of problems and practical applications in concurrent systems.We believe that the basic tenets of process algebra are highly compatible with the behavioural approach to dynamical systems. In our contribution we present an extension of classical process algebra that is suitable for the modelling and analysis of continuous and hybrid dynamical systems. It provides a natural framework for the concurrent composition of such systems, and can deal with nondeterministic behaviour that may arise from the occurrence of internal switching events. Standard process algebraic techniques lead to the characterization of the observable behaviour of such systems as equivalence classes under some suitably adapted notion of bisimulation.