A New Approach of Qualitative Simulation for the Validation of Hybrid Systems

Hybrid systems are specified in a heterogeneous form, with discrete and continuous parts. Simulating such systems requires precise data and computational power in order to synchronize continuous changes and discrete transitions. However, in the early design stages, the lack of precision about some parameters forbids such simulations. Qualitative simulation consists in computing only some qualities of the behavior, without computing the exact values. We present here a new approach for the qualitative simulation of hybrid systems, which relies on an abstract model of the state variables and of the qualitative aspects of their evolution. This model is analyzed by the Diversity symbolic execution engine to build the qualitative behaviors of the system.