Preface

Complex dynamical systems emerge in a variety of disciplines and domains, rang- ing from those that deal with physical processes (biology, genetics, environmental sciences, etc.) to those that concern man-made systems (engineering, energy, fi- nance, etc.). Indeed, in these fields, it is becoming more and more common to refer to dynamical structures such as systems of systems, hybrid systems and multimodal systems. In brief, the former ones consist of many interconnected dynamical sys- tems with various topological patterns and hierarchical relations; the second ones are dynamical systems that exhibit dynamics of a different nature, both continu- ous and discrete; the third ones are dynamical systems whose behavior may vary during their life-cycle owing to different operating conditions or depending on the occurrence of some events. The dynamical structures with these characteristics are currently modelled as, e.g., multi-agent systems, hybrid impulsive systems, switch- ing systems, implicit switching systems, and so on...