From its description on its website, it seems very close to what we are trying to do here:
Hybrid systems are systems with continuous-time dynamics, discrete events, and discrete mode changes. This visual modeler supports construction of hierarchical hybrid systems. It uses a block-diagram representation of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to define continuous dynamics. It uses a bubble-and-arc diagram representation of finite state machines to define discrete behavior.
I wish to learn more about this and see how does it related to my work.
The difference between Ptolemy and Simulink:
Ptolemy II has much more in common with Simulink, which is a graphical block-diagram language, originally developed for control system design. Simulink has a rich and expressive model of computation with continuous-time semantics and support for periodic discrete-time signals. Some of its principles have been incorporated in the CT (continuous-time) domain of Ptolemy II, but not all. The CT domain, for example, does not have the notion of "sample time" (which in Simulink provides the periodic discrete-time support) nor the support for algebraic loops. There is also currently no code generation support in CT (in Simulink, this is provided through the associated product Real-Time Workshop). Also, the CT domain has implemented fewer ODE solvers than those provided by Simulink and has a smaller actor library.
Ptolemy II and Simulink both support extension of the actor library through well-defined interfaces (in Simulink, this is called the S-function interface). However, Ptolemy II is a more open architecture in that its infrastructure is open source, and the interfaces to the core mechanisms in the software are published and documented. The persistent file format (MoML) is XML in Ptolemy II, which makes it both more verbose and more portable than the Simulink syntax (MDL files). Simulink supports one model of computation, whereas Ptolemy II supports several, and can be extended with new models of computation. Simulink can also be extended, as for example it has been with the associated product Stateflow, which supports state-machine modeling. But in Simulink, the extension is done by defining new blocks using the S-function interface. As such, additional models of computation added this way are second class. For example, they cannot define the model of computation at the top level of the hierarchy, and cannot contain Simulink models within their own components.
