Patent ID: 6446055
Filing Date: 2002-09-03
Classification: A63F,G06F,G06N

Abstract:
In a computer implemented autonomous-object modeling system comprising:a plurality of process cells, each process cell including at least one data input, at least one state variable, programmable logic for updating said at least one state variable in dependence upon said at least one data input, at least one data output for outputting data dependent upon said at least one state variable and a programmable link for each said data input specifying a source from which said at least one data input receives data, said plurality of process cells together forming a model of an autonomous object, at least one data input to at least one process cell modeling a stimulus applied to said autonomous object and at least one data output from at least one process cell modeling a response of said autonomous object to stimulation; and a scheduler for triggering said plurality of process cells as a whole to update their state variables whereby each of said plurality of process cells autonomously updates each process cell state variable in dependence upon said at least one data input to each cell using programmable logic to generate said at least one data output, updating of said state variables of said plurality of process cells corresponding to advancing said model of said autonomous-object in time to model behavior of said autonomous-object, wherein at least one of said plurality of process cells comprises a parent process cell that contains at least one child process cell, said at least one child process cell having at least one of a data input connected to a data input of said parent process cell and a data output of said child process cell connected to a data output of said parent process cell such that modeling provided by said parent process cell is at least partially performed by said child process cell.