A hybrid systems approach to computer-aided control engineering

In this article we provide a tutorial-style overview of ideas for a new computer-aided control engineering (CACE) environment. We discuss these ideas through repetition of two themes. The first theme is that the CACE environments should support a thread from requirements development to implementation. While some CACE environments come close to this today, none provides the end-to-end thread we envision. The second theme is that the environment should support automatic generation of automata that simultaneously comply with discrete and continuous constraints. Success in this theme would reduce the need to conduct extensive simulations and build prototypes in order to deliver and incrementally change computer-controlled systems. An example shows how such an environment can assist in addressing a recurring problem in manufacturing systems: repair of production schedules required by changes in logical or continuum constraints on factory operation. We argue that a declarative, hybrid-systems approach to off-line design and online generation of reactive control is needed for achieving synchronization, scalability, integration, and incremental construction of large-scale, computer-controlled systems