DYNAMIC SUSTAINABILITY SEARCH ENGINE

• US 20100274810A1
• Filed: 04/24/2009
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Walker, Marcia Elaine, Kaufman, Philip John
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,540 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/780
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2428 Query predicate definition using graphical user interfaces, including menus and forms G06F16/2423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

The innovation relates to systems and/or methodologies for facilitating dynamic sustainability searches. A sustainability search component executes a query, and returns one or more results that satisfy a set of search criteria and a set of sustainability factors. The search criteria can include keywords, such as product types, process types, and additional features related to the keywords, such as price, location, brand, and so forth. The sustainability factors are alternative cost measures for a given process, product, or plant element. The sustainability search component can analyze the returned results, and rank the results based on sustainability.

Claims

1. A sustainability search system, comprising:

at least one processor coupled to memory retaining instructions for;

a query component that searches at least one target for data elements satisfying a set of search criteria and a set of sustainability factors, wherein the search criteria defines an object of the query, and the sustainability factors are measures of at least one of the environmental or socio-environmental impact for at least one of a process, a product, or a plant element; and

an evaluation component that analyzes the data elements located by the query component, wherein the analysis includes determining a sustainability score for each data element based at least in part on the associated sustainability factors.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the targets include at least one of a controller, a network device, a website, a data store, or a cloud-based data store.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the sustainability factors include at least one of a human sustainability factor, a planet sustainability factor, or a financial sustainability factor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of a user or an application assigns weight values to a set of sustainability factors and the evaluation component determines the sustainability score based on the assigned weight values.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data elements include at least one of a file, a bill of materials, a specification, a website, an article of manufacture, or a database entry.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a ranking component that organizes the analyzed data elements based at least in part on the sustainability scores determined by the evaluation component.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the ranking component at least one of organizes the data elements from most desirable sustainability score to least desirable sustainability score, or truncates data elements not having a sustainability score within a threshold, or organizes only a subset of the data elements.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface component that at least one of facilitates user interaction with at least one of the query component, evaluation component, or ranking component.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the interface component at least one of exposes one or more interfaces for displaying at least one of the search criteria, sustainability factors, located data elements, sustainability scores, or organization of the data elements, or communicates at least one of the search criteria, sustainability factors, located data elements, sustainability scores, or organization of the data elements with an application or process.

10. A method for dynamic sustainability searches, comprising:

employing a processor executing computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

querying at least one store based on a set of search criteria that identify at least one of a product, a process, an article of manufacture, or a plant element, and a set of sustainability factors that are metrics for measuring an impact for the process, product, article of manufacture, plant element;

assigning a weight to each of the sustainability factors, wherein the weight can be specified by at least one of a user, an application, a thread, or a process, or a default weight can be assigned; and

determining a sustainability score for each query result based at least in part on the associated sustainability factors.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the stores include at least one of a controller, a network device, a website, a data store, or a cloud-based data store.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the sustainability factors include at least one of a human sustainability factor, a planet sustainability factor, or a financial sustainability factor.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the query results include at least one of a data element, a file, a bill of materials, a specification, a website, an article, or a database entry.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising ranking the query results based on their respective sustainability scores

15. The method of claim 14, wherein ranking the query results further comprises at least one of ranking only query results having a sustainability score within a threshold, or ranking only a subset of the query results.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising exposing one or more interfaces to display at least one of the search criteria, sustainability factors, query results, sustainability scores, or query result rankings.

17. The method claim 10, further comprising transmitting to at least one of an application, a process, or a thread at least one of the search criteria, the sustainability factors, the query results, the sustainability scores, or the query result rankings.

18. A computer-implemented system facilitating dynamic sustainability searches, comprising:

means for searching at least one target based on a set of search criteria that identify at least one of a product, a process, an article of manufacture, or a plant element, and a set of sustainability factors that are metrics for measuring at least one of an environmental or socio-environmental impact for the process, product, article of manufacture, or plant element;

means for enabling at least one of a user, an application, a thread, or a process to determine a prioritization value for each of the sustainability factors;

means for calculating a sustainability score for each query result based at least in part on the sustainability factors and associated prioritization values; and

means for ranking the query results based on their respective sustainability scores.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for at least one of exposing one or more interfaces to display at least one of the search criteria, sustainability factors, query results, sustainability scores, or query result rankings, or communicating to at least one of an application, a process, a data store, or a thread at least one of the search criteria, the sustainability factors, the query results, the sustainability scores, or the query result rankings.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising means for automating one or more features of the system via at least one of artificial intelligence or machine learning.