Generation of bots based on observed behavior

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10977058-B2
Application number	US-201916447033-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2019
Priority date	Jun 20, 2019
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

An application server provides an application to client devices. Users of the client devices interact with the application to perform a business process. Data regarding user interactions with the application is transmitted from the client devices to the application server. Based on an analysis of the received data, a bot generation server generates a bot to automate a process step. The bot generation server provides a heatmap user interface (UI) that provides information regarding the process steps. Using the heatmap UI, the administrator selects a process step for automation. In response to the selection, the bot generation server identifies, based on the observed behavior, relationships between input fields, typical values for input fields, typical order of data entry into input fields, or any suitable combination thereof. Based on the identified patterns, the bot generation server generates a bot to automate some or all of the process step.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, from a set of client devices and via a network, a data set, each element of the data set comprising:
a process instance identifier and a business object type for a process instance comprising a plurality of tasks;
a duration of time to perform at least a first subset of the plurality of tasks by a user; and
a clickstream identifying fields modified by the user;

based on the received process instance identifiers, durations of time, and clickstreams, causing a user interface to be presented that comprises:
an element corresponding to each task of at least a second subset of the plurality of tasks, each element comprising a visual indicator that indicates a likelihood that the corresponding task would benefit from automation;

receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a task of the plurality of tasks for automation;
in response to the receiving of the selection of the task, causing the user interface to further comprise:
additional information based on the received data set and regarding the selected task; and
an interactive element;

in response to operation of the interactive element, based on a subset of the data set that comprises data for the selected task, generating a bot to automatically perform the selected task, the generating of the bot comprising determining a default value for a parameter of the bot;
accessing, by the bot, a modified value of the parameter; and
validating the modified value of the parameter using parameter validation code for the parameter based on the data set.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
running the bot; and
receiving, by the bot, interactive user input to modify the default value.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
running the bot; and
accessing, by the bot, data from a data file to modify the default value.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the accessing of the data from the data file comprises processing a known field location in the data file using optical character recognition (OCR).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating of the bot comprises determining a relationship between two fields of a user interface of a task.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining of the relationship between the two fields comprises determining that the two fields have the same value.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a probability that a first field of a user interface of the selected task has a value that is a sum of two other fields of the user interface of the selected task; and
based on the probability and a threshold, configuring the bot to set the value of the first field to the sum of the two other fields.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the clickstream comprises a number of mouse clicks.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the visual indicator of each element is further based on an average number of pastes of information in clickstreams for the corresponding task.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing, to a client device, instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of the client device, cause the client device to perform operations comprising:
displaying a second user interface for performing the selected task; and

automatically interacting with the second user interface by executing the bot.

11. A system comprising:
a memory that stores instructions; and
one or more processors configured by the instructions to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a set of client devices and via a network, a data set, each element of the data set comprising:
a process instance identifier and a business object type for a process instance comprising a plurality of tasks;
a duration of time to perform at least a subset of the plurality of tasks by a user; and
a clickstream identifying fields modified by the user;

based on the received process instance identifiers, durations of time, and clickstreams, causing a user interface to be presented that comprises:
an element corresponding to each task of at least a second subset of the plurality of tasks, each element comprising a visual indicator that indicates a likelihood that the corresponding task would benefit from automation;

receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a task of the plurality of tasks for automation;
in response to the receiving of the selection of the task, causing the user interface to further comprise:
additional information based on the received data set and regarding the selected task; and
an interactive element;

in response to operation of the interactive element, based on a subset of the data set that comprises data for the selected task, generating a bot to automatically perform the selected task, the generating of the bot comprising determining a default value for a parameter of the bot;
accessing, by the bot, a modified value of the parameter; and
validating the modified value of the parameter using parameter validation code for the parameter based on the data set.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the system further comprises the client device; and
the client device is configured to perform operations comprising:
running the bot; and
receiving, by the bot, interactive user input to modify the default value.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the system further comprises the client device; and
the client device is configured to perform operations comprising:
running the bot; and
accessing, by the bot, data from a data file to modify the default value.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the accessing of the data from the data file comprises processing a known field location in the data file using optical character recognition (OCR).

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the generating of the bot comprises determining a relationship between two fields of a user interface of the selected task.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a set of client devices and via a network, a data set, each element of the data set comprising:
a process instance identifier and a business object type for a process instance comprising a plurality of tasks;
a duration of time to perform at least a subset of the plurality of tasks by a user; and
a clickstream identifying fields modified by the user;

based on the received process instance identifiers, durations of time, and clickstreams, causing a user interface to be presented that comprises:
an element corresponding to each task of at least a second subset of the plurality of tasks, each element comprising a visual indicator that indicates a likelihood that the corresponding task would benefit from automation;

receiving, via the user interface, a selection of a task of the plurality of tasks for automation;
in response to the receiving of the selection of the task, causing the user interface to further comprise:
additional information based on the received data set and regarding the selected task; and
an interactive element;

in response to operation of the interactive element, based on a subset of the data set that comprises data for the selected task, generating a bot to automatically perform the selected task, the generating of the bot comprising determining a default value for a parameter of the bot;
accessing, by the bot, a modified value of the parameter; and
validating the modified value of the parameter using parameter validat

Assignees

• Sap Se

Inventors

• Berg Gregor
• Wenz Andre Niklas
• Hoeppner Bernhard
• Bodner Thomas
• Cherepanova Olga
• Steffen Lasse
• Siebert Jan
• Hennemann David
• Schulze Pascal
• Dobler Konstantin
• Kahl Kris-Fillip
• Beneke Paul Udo
• Hoberg Philipp Bernhard

Classifications

• G06F9/451 Primary

  Execution arrangements for user interfaces · CPC title

• G06F9/45512 Primary

  Command shells · CPC title

• G06V30/10

  Character recognition · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G06V30/153

  using recognition of characters or words · CPC title