Continuity and invariance in hybrid automata

Hybrid automata have been proposed as a language for modelling and analysing the interaction of digital and analogue dynamics in embedded computer systems. In the paper, hybrid automata are studied from a dynamical systems perspective. Extending earlier work on conditions for existence and uniqueness of executions of hybrid automata, we characterise a class of hybrid automata whose executions depend continuously on the initial state. The continuity conditions are subsequently used to derive an extension of LaSalle´s principle for studying the stability of invariant sets of states of hybrid automata.