This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference documentation of the Fourth International Conference on Hybrid Systems held in Ithaca, NY, USA, in October 1996. The volume presents 19 carefully revised full papers selected from numerous submissions. Hybrid systems research focuses on modeling, design, and validation of interacting systems (plants) and computer programs (control automata). This volume is devoted to hybrid systems models, formal verification, computer simulation, goal reachability, algorithms for extracting hybrid control programs, and application models for avionics, highway traffic control, and air traffic control.

This book documents the scientific outcome of the Third International Workshop on Hybrid Systems, held in Ithaca, NY, USA, in October 1994. It presents a selection of carefully reviewed and revised full papers chosen from the workshop contribution and is the successor to LNCS 736, the seminal "Hybrid Systems" volume edited by Grossman, Nerode, Ravn, and Rischel.
Hybrid systems are models for networks of digital and continuous devices, in which digital control programs sense and supervise continuous and discrete plants governed by differential or difference equations. The investigation of hybrid systems is creating a new and fascinating discipline bridging mathematics, computer science, and control engineering.