System and method for the automatic creation of a graphical representation of navigation paths generated by intelligent planner

• US 20020158864A1
• Filed: 04/26/2002
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Celcorp Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Celcorp Incorporated
• Inventors: Matichuk, Bruce
• Granted Patent: US 8,452,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for the automatic creation of a process model having a graphical representation. The system includes a planner to determine different plans for addressing a problem, and a graphics engine for displaying the process model for the different plans. Furthermore, the present invention includes a method for forming a process model having the steps of obtaining a planning data from a planning software; accessing a graphical editor; building the information needed to create a process model; and drawing a process model diagram with the graphical editor.

Claims

1. A system to create a graphical display of a process model, the system comprising:

a planner that produces one or more plans having one or more initial conditions and one or more goals, wherein each of the initial conditions and each of the goals includes a business rule expression; and

a graphic engine configured to receive the plans from the planner, whereby said graphical engine converts the plans into the process model and creates the graphical display of the process model.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the business rule expression is a quantifiable first-order logic expression.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the quantifiable first-order logic expression is a Boolean expression.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said planner uses an intelligent agent.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein each of the plans includes one or more tasks, wherein each of the tasks has one or more inputs and one or more outputs, and wherein each of the task'"'"'s inputs and outputs includes a business rule expression.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising an application that transfers data between the planner and the graphics engine.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a data storage device.

8. A method to create a graphically displayed process model, the method comprising the steps of:

a. obtaining planning data from a planning system;

b. accessing a graphical editor;

c. using the planning data to create the process model; and

d. drawing the graphical display of the process model with the graphical editor.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the planning data is based on one or more plans having one or more initial conditions and one or more goals, wherein each of the initial conditions and each of the goals includes a business rule expression.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of obtaining planning data from a planning system further comprises:

forming one or more plan strings, wherein each of the plan strings has one or more nodes; and

creating node data for each of the nodes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plan strings corresponds to a plan having one or more initial conditions and one or more goals, wherein each of the initial conditions and the goals includes a business rule expression.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the nodes has one or more initial node conditions and one or more node effects, wherein each of the node initial conditions and the node effects includes a business rule expression.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the planning data includes information identifying a node in a plan.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the process model includes data identifying a node in the process model.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying data identifies predecessor nodes.

17. A method to create a graphically displayed process model, the method comprising the step of:

a. obtaining planning data for defining a plan;

b. using the planning data for creating the process model; and

c. drawing the graphical display for representing the process model.

18. A system to create a graphical display of a process model, the system comprising:

a plan data producing means; and

a graphics means configured to receive the plan data and to convert the plan data into the graphical display of the process model.

19. A computer program product for automatically creating a graphical display of a process model, the computer program product comprising:

computer readable program code configured to create planning data;

computer readable program code configured to use the planning data to create the process model;

computer readable program code configured to create the graphical display of the process model.