1. A method for constructing a hierarchical model consisting of the following steps: a) constructing an initial object decomposition into components based on a model image; b) determining the relative poses of the components in a plurality of example images with respect to the model image; c) determining whether a plurality of components moves in an identical or similar manner over the sequence of example images and, if so, grouping such components, resulting together with the ungrouped components in the object parts; d) determining the relative poses of said grouped components in each example image; e) forming a hierarchical model, consisting of a root object part at the top of the hierarchy and a plurality of object parts at lower levels of the hierarchy, from the object parts using an optimization criterion that takes into account the relative poses of the object parts; and f) determining relative search spaces of the object parts to be used in the object recognition phase.