A Prototype Development Framework for Hybrid Control System Design

Abstract Hybrid control systems are a combination of real-time control law and discrete-state logic. This paper describes how a Development Framework for control systems software has been adapted so that it may also handle discrete events such as mode switching. The Framework provides a highly automated path from a control engineering specification to a distributed system implementation. Simulink, an extension to Matlab, is used to specify control laws, and a statecharts tool, Statemate, is used to specify and model discrete-state components. The design phase of the Development Framework supports the integration of the two sets of specification. An inverted pendulum control system is introduced as a simple example of a hybrid system implemented using the Framework. The translation of statecharts to dataflow notations is described for the example system. General translation rules are also presented.