Integrating object oriented Petri nets into the active graph database of a real time simulation system

Most modern interactive 3D simulation systems are at their core quasi continuous. However, user interaction is mostly based on discrete events, like the push of a button. Furthermore, many algorithms can ideally be described in a state oriented or discrete event approach. In addition to this, when interfacing physical hardware in robotics and automation, the state of real machines is monitored and controlled via I/O boards, which are inherently discrete. We introduced the Petri-net based State Oriented Modeling Language (SOML++) in (Schluse 2002) and (Rossmann, Schluse, and Waspe 2008), which provide a common basis for the integration of state oriented or discrete event based "processes" into 3D simulation systems.