Patent ID: 6581048
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: G05B,G06N

Abstract:
A computer program product, comprising:a computer storage medium and a computer program code mechanism embedded in the computer storage medium for causing a computer to control an external physical device, the computer program code mechanism comprising: a first computer code device configured to create plural decision blocks, each such decision block including plural action choices, a set of exit states, and a set of post-exit states, wherein a subset of the plural decision blocks can be entered from each post-exit state; a second computer code device configured to receive inputs; a third computer code device configured to select a post-exit state of one of the plural decision blocks based on the received inputs; a fourth computer code device configured to select one of the plural decision blocks that can be entered from the selected post-exit state and that maximizes a local cost function for the selected post-exit state; and a fifth computer code device configured to produce at least one output based on the selected one of the plural decision blocks.