Incremental computation of succinct abstractions for hybrid systems

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to computing abstractions for hybrid dynamical systems whose continuous behavior is governed by non-linear ordinary differential equations. The abstractions try to capture the reachability information relevant for a given safety property as succinctly as possible. This is achieved by an incremental refinement of the abstractions, simultaneously trying to avoid increases in their size as much as possible. The approach is independent of a concrete technique for computing reachability information, and can hence be combined with whatever technique suitable for the problem class at hand. We illustrate the usefulness of the technique with computational experiments. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.