Specification and Synthesis of Hybrid Automata for Physics-Based Animation

Abstract

Physics-based animation programs are useful in a variety of contexts, including science, engineering, education and entertainment. For example, in science, they are used to investigate the behavior of dynamical systems. In engineering, they are used to help design vehicles, machinery and other mechanical devices. In education, they are used to teach basic principles of physics. In entertainment, they are used in games involving cars, planes, spaceships and other moving objects. Such programs are usually constructed by hand, in conventional programming languages, such as C++, possibly augmented with a physics-based animation toolkit. Unfortunately, manual construction of physics-based animation programs is expensive, time-consuming and highly prone to error.