Modelling a real-time control system using parameterized linear hybrid automata

Abstract

Many real-time systems operate in safety-critical environments. Testing of these systems is hard in principle and can never guarantee full coverage. So a method for formally proving correctness is desirable. Another problem in real-time system design is the determination of deadlines and periods of time-critical processes as a prerequisite of the scheduler design. We want to use Hybrid Automata (HA) to tackle both problems. HA are a formal language that is equipped with semantics and thus accessible to formal analysis. We introduce the syntax and semantics of a new class of HA called Parameterized Linear Hybrid Automata and demonstrate its advantages by modelling a typical real-time control system using an extended version of the tool HieroMate.