Distributed activity control systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10984325-B2
Application number	US-202016737731-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 8, 2020
Priority date	Sep 18, 2014
Publication date	Apr 20, 2021
Grant date	Apr 20, 2021

Abstract

A dynamic, distributed directed activity network comprising a directed activity control program specifying tasks to be executed including required individual task inputs and outputs, the required order of task execution, and permitted parallelism in task execution; a plurality of task execution agents, individual of said agents having a set of dynamically changing agent attributes and capable of executing different required tasks in said activity control; a plurality of task execution controllers, each controller associated with one or more of the task execution agents with access to dynamically changing agent attributes; a directed activity controller for communicating with said task execution controllers for directing execution of said activity control program; a communications network capable of supporting communication between said directed activity controller and task execution controllers; and wherein said directed activity controller and task execution controllers communicate via said communication network to execute said directed activity control program using selected task execution agents.

First claim

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A method for controlling execution of interrelated distributed tasks comprising a cloud-based data processing and storage system and internet connected computers, data storage, task execution agents and task execution controllers with at least one specialized computer machine and further comprising:
the step of creating graphic representation of multiple interconnected nodes representing all or part of said interrelated distributed tasks wherein said nodes further comprise one or more of computers, storage units, transportation equipment, manufacturing equipment, factories, personnel and/or communications equipment with identification of task inputs and outputs;
the step of storing in memory one or more interrelated distributed task control programs comprising digital workflow instructions for control of execution of interrelated tasks including task precedence requirements and permitted parallelism in task execution;
the step of storing in memory interrelated distributed task input and output object workflow representations;
the step of storing in memory artificial intelligence expert system specified workflow propositional logic rules defining task execution agent asset attribute ranges and defined threshold values for triggering activities depending on said task execution agent asset attribute values and said propositional logic rules;
the step of storing in memory digital model history files comprising potentially dynamically changing task execution agent attributes describing task execution agent characteristic and operational status;
the step of hardware and/or software of said task execution controllers monitoring said task execution agents comprising connection to said cloud-based data processing and storage systems with wireless communication devices comprising one or more of Bluetooth, cellular telephone interfaces, tablets, laptop computers, and/or special purpose controllers with communication capabilities with the internet;
the step of electronically receiving from task execution agents messages providing task execution status, sensor derived information and/or potentially dynamically changing task execution agent attributes;
the step of updating said digital model history files and statistical analysis of potentially dynamically changing task execution attributes stored in digital model history files based on information in said task execution agent received messages;
the step of digital model artificial intelligence expert system analysis based on said workflow propositional logic rules;
the step of designating a particular internet accessible task execution agent for executing a particular task with said digital model artificial intelligence expert system analysis and load balancing based on said task execution agent status comprising task execution agent availability and utilization;
the step of electronically transmitting by the one or more electronic programmable artificial intelligence control computer machines one or more control messages to at least one selected Internet accessible contained distributed task execution agent to direct execution of particular tasks; and

whereby improved resource utilization efficiency is achieved based on received task execution status message information and artificial intelligence expert systems derived decisions directing the execution of said interrelated distributed tasks.

2. The method of claim 1 , further wherein said task execution attributes include measurements of execution parameters comprising time required by a particular resource to execute a particular task and the cost of using such resource for said task execution.

3. The method of claim 1 , further Wherein said artificial intelligence expert system defined propositional logic program statements are of the form (If A and/or B, then C—or variations of such conditional relationships) where “A” and “B” are potentially dynamically variable execution parameters defining status or use considerations for using a particular resource to execute a particular task and “C” is a task dispatch parameter defining the desirability of using said particular resource to execute said particular task.

4. The method of claim 3 , further wherein the artificial intelligence expert system selection of a particular resource to execute a particular task is made by comparing computed values of the variable “C” for each resource that may be potentially used to execute said task.

5. The method of claim 1 , further wherein said propositional logic rules are defined by one or more experts.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising execution of interrelated distributed tasks based on the occurrence of predetermined events.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein predetermined events comprise particular dates and/or times.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein predetermined events comprise the completion of other control programs.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein predetermined events comprise changes in system operational status.

10. The method of claim 3 , wherein the desirability of using said particular resource to execute a particular task is dependent on the resource location.

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein the desirability of using said particular resource to execute a particular task is dependent on the cost of using that resource.

12. The method of claim 3 , wherein the desirability of using said particular resource to execute a particular task is dependent on the resource capacity.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cloud-based data processing and storage system maintains queues for tasks waiting execution.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein selection of a particular task for execution from said queue of waiting tasks is made based on artificial intelligence evaluation of each such task importance in minimizing the total execution time for all interrelated tasks defined in said control program.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said task execution agent attributes are maintained in an artificial intelligence data base.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein said task execution agent attributes may vary with time.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said task execution agent attributes that may vary with time are maintained in said artificial intelligence database for analytic or statistical analysis of said variations.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising distribution and receipt of accurate time information further insuring coordinated task execution and use of resources.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein said interrelated distributed task input and output object flow representations comprise workflow material flows between and among said tasks.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein said interrelated distributed task control programs comprise artificial intelligence expert system defined ranges of said potentially dynamically changing task execution agent parameters with expert system decisions based at least in part on parameter memberships in said defined ranges.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said interrelated distributed task control programs comprise artificial intelligence expert system parameter ranges defining boundaries for triggering control actions.

22. The method of claim 1 comprising multiple interrelated distributed task control programs for independent, sequential or parallel execution depending on said interrelated distributed tas

Assignees

• Pedersen Robert D

Inventors

• Pedersen Robert D

Classifications

• H04L67/10 Primary

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F9/5027

  the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals · CPC title

• G06N5/02 Primary

  Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation · CPC title

• G06F9/4843

  by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system · CPC title