This paper describes the basic ideas of the HyperReal project. It is c
entered on the definition of architectural abstractions to design modu
lar RT systems. Basic components are reactive agents manipulating data
and connectors supporting interactions among agents. Such components
are not aware of control strategies, which are managed by a controller
. The controller relies on a time-driven model of control, and separat
es planning and dispatching of actions. Plans are associated with virt
ual clocks that support the explicit management of time. ?The architec
tural abstractions allow designers to fully control the temporal behav
ior of the system and to reuse components to fit different application
-oriented control models.