Patent US 6,285,976

The present invention discloses apparatus implementing hierarchical state charts and including a state machine engine (SME) operative to carry out repertoires of behaviors of a system, a state chart encoder operative to replicate, in computer code form, a user-defined hierarchical state chart describing a repertoire of behaviors of the system, the encoder being operative to preserve the state chart's hierarchical structure intact in a first data structure, an event list generator operative to generate, for each individual event from among a plurality of events within the repertoire, a list of at least one transition between states of the state chart which are associated with the individual event, the event list generator being operative to preserve the list in a second data structure, and a behavior implementer operative to activate the system to carry out each of the behaviors in its repertoire.