IEE COMPUTING AND CONTROL DIVISION
COLLOQUIUM ON HYBRID CONTROL FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS

CALL FOR PAPERS

Professional Group C8 (Control systems theory and design) is organising a
Colloquium on "Hybrid control for real-time systems" to be held at the IEE,
Savoy Place, London on Friday 6th December 1996.

Hybrid control systems are reactive control systems that involve both
continuous and discrete dynamics and continuous and discrete controls.
Conventionally, such systems have been designed by considering the
continuous and discrete event systems separately (by suppressing either the
continuous dynamics so that the hybrid system is a discrete event dynamical
system or the discrete dynamics so that the hybrid system becomes a
differential equation).  A difficulty with hybrid systems is that the
interaction between the continuous and discrete event systems complicate
their analysis.  Recent research on integrated approaches to hybrid
systems, in both computer science and control engineering, has led to a
variety of semantic models, notations and analysis techniques which address
these issues directly.  The developing theory of hybrid control systems is
generic to the design of sequential supervisory controllers for continuous
systems and may influence existing approaches or lead to the development of
new design methods.


The scope of the colloquium will include recent developments in modelling
hybrid control systems including notations, model generation and simulation
tools; analysis and verification techniques for hybrid systems; the problem
of synthesising controllers for hybrid systems; and design methods
including systematic approaches of various degrees of abstraction.  Papers
are also welcome on related issues including demonstration applications of
hybrid control theory and assessments of the capabilities and limitations
of current techniques.  The event is intended to bring together researchers
from control theory and computer science, designers of hybrid control
systems and developers of sequential supervisory controllers for hybrid
systems.

Abstracts of 300-400 words should be sent to Dr David Holding,  Dept
Electronic Engineering & Applied Physics, Aston University, Aston Triangle,
Birmingham B4 7ET. U.K.  Tel (+44) 121 350 3611 Ext 5107; Fax (+44) 121 359
0156,
email: d.j.holding@aston.ac.uk