Contracts as specifications for dynamical systems in driving variable form
For control engineers, it provides a richer specification language for complex systems, but the contribution is incremental as it adapts existing contract theory to a new model class.
This paper extends assume/guarantee contract theory to continuous-time control systems, enabling formal specification and verification of complex dynamical systems. The framework is demonstrated on a vehicle following example.
This paper introduces assume/guarantee contracts on continuous-time control systems, hereby extending contract theories for discrete systems to certain new model classes and specifications. Contracts are regarded as formal characterizations of control specifications, providing an alternative to specifications in terms of dissipativity properties or set-invariance. The framework has the potential to capture a richer class of specifications more suitable for complex engineering systems. The proposed contracts are supported by results that enable the verification of contract implementation and the comparison of contracts. These results are illustrated by an example of a vehicle following system.