Behavior Abstraction for 'D-actable Simulation

Most qualitative simulation techniques perform simulation at a single level of detail highlighting a fixed set of distinctions. This can lead to in-tractable branching within the behavioral descrip-tion. The complexity of the simulation can be reduced by eliminating uninteresting distinctions. Behavior abstraction provides a hierarchy of behav-ioral descriptions allowing the modeler to select the appropriate level of description highlighting the rel-evant distinctions. Two abstraction techniques are presented. Behavior aggregation eliminates occur-rence branching by providing a hybrid between a behavior tree representation and a history based description. Chatter box abstraction uses attain-able envisionment to eliminate intractable branch-ing due to chatter within a behavior tree simula-tion