Nonlinear Systems: Approximating Reach Sets

We describe techniques to generate useful reachability information for nonlinear dynamical systems. These techniques can be automated for polynomial systems using algorithms from computational algebraic geometry. The generated information can be incorporated into other approaches for doing reachability computation. It can also be used when abstracting hybrid systems that contain modes with nonlinear dynamics. These techniques are most naturally embedded in the hybrid qualitative abstraction approach proposed by the authors previously. They also show that the formal qualitative abstraction approach is well suited for dealing with nonlinear systems.