"Dynamic Systems with Symbolic Inputs" 

Antonio Bicchi
Department of  Electrical Systems and Automation
Pisa University

Department of Mathematics "L.Tonelli" - Aula Magna - at 15:30

In this talk I consider some aspects involved in the analysis and control of dynamic systems under symbolic command. Symbolic commands are inputs to the dynamic systems which take values in a finite or countable set, and arise in a wide variety of systems. Their occurrence may be due to the nature of the system itself, or to technological limitations (such as finite band with in networked embedded control systems), or may be intentionally introduced to achieve more compact and efficient abstractions of possible behaviours. I will overview recent results related to the analysis of reachability for such systems, including a discussion of density/discreteness and lattice structures of the reachable set, and an extension of the classical notion of discrete nonholonomy. I will also point at some results and open research directions concerning synthesis of planning strategies and optimization for systems with symbolic inputs, and their stabilization.