Integration Graphs: A class of decidable hybrid systems

Abstract

Integration Graphs are a computational model developed in the attempt to identify simple Hybrid Systems with decidable analysis problems. We start with the class of constant slope hybrid systems (cshs), in which the right hand side of all differential equations is an integer constant. We refer to continuous variables whose right hand side constants are always 1 as timers. All other continuous variables are called integrators. The first result shown in the paper is that simple questions such as reachability of a given state are undecidable for even this simple class of systems.

To restrict the model even further, we impose the requirement that no test that refers to integrators may appear within a loop in the graph. This restricted class of cshs is called integration graphs. The main results of the paper are that the reachability problem of integration graphs is decidable for two special cases: The case of a single timer and the case of a single test involving integrators.

The expressive power of the integration graphs formalism is demonstrated by showing that some typical problems studied within the context of the Calculus of Durations and Timed Statecharts can be formulated as reachability problems for restricted integration graphs, and a high fraction of these fall into the subclasses of a single timer or a single dangerous test.

This research was supported in part by the France-Israel project for cooperation in Computer Science and by the European Community ESPRIT Basic Research Action Project 6021 (REACT).