Description of Hybrid Systems by Modified Petri Nets

This contribution focuses on the modeling of hybrid systems by means of modified Petri Nets. The main goal of this approach is to get a formal description language for hybrid systems, which combines the advantages of a graphical description with the possibility of a transparent visualization, simulation and documentation. For this, several enhancements are proposed. The first enhancement combines the classical discrete Petri Net approach and the concept of continuous Petri Nets. The resulting Petri Net class is called Hybrid Dynamical Nets (HDN). In the second enhancement, the aspect of the system complexity is covered by introducing object oriented concepts like encapsulation and information hiding. The resulting Hybrid Object Nets (HON) combine the advantages of HDN with those of the object-oriented paradigm. The third proposed enhancement is a combination of the HDN approach with the concept of colored Petri Nets in order to increase the flexibility of the HDN. The resulting class of nets is called Attributed Hybrid Dynamical Nets (AHDN). The proposed concepts are explained with several examples.