Representing real world phenomena through HDPTN

The authors present a model, called HDPTN (hierarchical and distributed process transition network), for the representation of real world phenomena. This model is based on two types of entities: circumstances and episodes. A circumstance is an elementary entity which can take on a set of discrete values over time, while an episode is a compound entity whose parts are a circumstance and/or other episodes acting concurrently. In particular, the hierarchical and distributed structure of the episode seems to be suitable for the modeling of systems which need real-time performance and the integration of representations and reasoning at different levels of detail