Process control
OwnerStephen L. Grandinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A process control system is described using a plurality of autonomous process cells. Each process cell has data inputs, data outputs, processing logic, state variable, and link data specifying the other cells that provides its inputs. A scheduler triggers the plurality of cells as a whole to update their state. Cell may be recursive and contain child cells, at least some of which are linked to the parent cell. The cells can be subject to mutation and a non-brittle program language is provided for the logic within the cells in order to stop mutation causing a cell to cease to function. Cells within a neural network are provided with both fast and slow feedback mechanisms to improve their responsiveness to action reinforcement cycles. A mediated peer-to-peer network is described for use to simulate a tessellated virtual environment.
Claims16
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.
A computer implemented autonomous-object modeling method for controlling 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, said method comprising the step of:
- 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.
A computer program product for controlling a computer to provide an autonomous-object modeling method for controlling 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, said method comprising the step of:
- 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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.