System and method for automatically executing decisional rules

• US 5,978,786 A
• Filed: 10/03/1997
• Issued: 11/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Incorporated
• Inventors: Eyles, Donald
• Primary Examiner(s): Downs, Robert W.
• Application Number:
  US08/943,742
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 395/51, 395/62, 706/53, 706/58, 706/46, 706/903
• US Class Current: 706/58
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/046 Forward inferencing; Production systems

Abstract

A system and method for automatically evaluating a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task when or whenever the condition is fulfilled in which a decisional rule is entered into computing means, parsed, and then processed such that automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether the condition is fulfilled are provided until the condition is fulfilled and then the task associated with the decisional rule is automatically performed and whereby further processing is resumed only after the condition is fulfilled.

Claims

1. A method for automatically evaluating a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task when the condition is fulfilled comprising:

entering said decisional rule into computing means;

compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition;

providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluation of whether said condition is fulfilled until said condition is fulfilled once independent of whether data affecting said condition changes;

automatically performing said task when said condition is fulfilled once; and

resuming further processing only after said condition is fulfilled once.

2. A method for automatically executing a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task whenever the condition is fulfilled comprising:

entering said decisional rule into computing means;

compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition;

providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes;

automatically performing said task whenever said condition is fulfilled; and

resuming further processing each time said condition is fulfilled.

3. A method for automatically executing a decisional rule containing a task and a condition containing a period of time which must be satisfied before the task can be performed and automatically performing the task every time the condition is fulfilled comprising:

entering said decisional rule into computing means;

compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition;

providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes;

automatically performing said task every time said time period is satisfied; and

resuming processing each time said task is performed.

4. A method for automatically executing a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task whenever the condition is fulfilled comprising:

entering said decisional rule into computing means;

compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition;

providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes;

determining whether the status of said condition has changed between each said iterative evaluation;

automatically performing said task whenever both said condition is fulfilled and said status has changed; and

resuming processing each time both said condition is fulfilled and the status of said condition has changed.

5. A system for automatically evaluating a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and automatically performing the task when the condition is fulfilled comprising:

computing means including compiler means and executor means responsive to said compiler means; and

means for entering one or more said decisional rules into said computing means, said decisional rule containing a condition and a task to be performed when said condition is fulfilled,

said compiler means including parsing means for isolating said condition and further including means for determining whether evaluations of said condition are to continue after said condition is fulfilled once;

said executor means including means for providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes.

6. The system of claim 5 in which said executor means further includes means for performing said task when said condition is fulfilled.

7. The system of claim 5 in which said executor means further includes means for performing said task whenever said condition is fulfilled.

8. The system of claim 5 in which said executor means further includes means to assess, for each iterative evaluation of said condition, whether said condition has changed from a status of fulfilled to not fulfilled.

9. The system of claim 8 in which said executor means further includes means for performing said task whenever both said condition is fulfilled and said condition has changed.

10. A method for automatically evaluating a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task when the condition is fulfilled comprising:

combining sequences of statements including decisional rules into bundles;

entering said bundles into computing means;

compiling each said decisional rule to parse said conditions to determine for each decisional rule whether evaluations of said decisional rule are to continue after said condition associated with each said rule is fulfilled once; and

providing automatic and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said conditions are fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes.

11. The method of claim 10 further including processing each said sequence in parallel.

12. The method of claim 11 further including processing said statements of each said sequence serially.

13. The method of claim 12 further including halting processing of said statements upon the occurrence of a decisional rule.

14. The method of claim 13 in which said iterative evaluations continue only until said condition associated with said decisional rule is fulfilled once and in which processing is resumed after said condition is fulfilled once.

15. The method of claim 13 in which said processing is resumed every time said condition is fulfilled.

16. A method for automatically processing a series of statements including commands which automatically halt further processing until a condition associated with each command is fulfilled comprising:

entering a sequence of when/then statements including one or more control commends each containing a condition into processing means;

processing each statement sequentially in said sequence;

halting processing of said statements upon the occurrence of a said control command;

automatically and continuously providing iterative evaluations of whether said condition associated with said control is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes; and

resuming processing of the remainder of said statements in said sequence only upon the fulfillment of said condition associated with said control command.

17. The method of claim 16 further including determining whether iterative evaluations of said condition associated with each said control command are to continue after the remainder of said statements are processed.

18. A system for automatically processing a series of statements including commands which automatically halt further processing until a condition associated with each command is fulfilled comprising:

input means for entry of a sequence of statements including one or more control commands each containing a condition;

compiler means, responsive to said input means, for recognizing the input of said control commands;

processor means, responsive to said compiler, for sequentially processing each said statement;

means, responsive to said compiler means and said processor means, for halting processing of said statements upon the occurrence of a said command;

means for providing automatic and continuous iterative evaluations of whether said condition associated with said control command is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes; and

means to resume processing of the remainder of said statements in said sequence only upon the fulfillment of said condition associated with said control command.

19. The system of claim 18 in which said compiler means further include means for determining whether iterative evaluations of said condition associated with each said control command are to continue after processing of the remainder of said statements in said sequence resumes.

20. A system including means for executing a decisional rule which performs a task upon the fulfillment of a condition, the system providing automatic and continuous iterative evaluations of whether a condition is fulfilled until the condition is fulfilled at least once, and which performs the iterative evaluation independent of whether data affecting the condition changes, and which resumes any further processing only after the condition is fulfilled once, which automatically programs the system in order to achieve continuing recursive evaluation of the conditions contained within said decisional rule.

21. A system including means for executing a decisional rule which performs a task upon the fulfillment of a condition, the system providing automatic and continuous iterative evaluations of whether the condition is fulfilled until the condition is fulfilled at least once and which resumes any further processing only after the condition is fulfilled once;

and

means for automatically iteratively evaluating whether the condition of said decisional rule is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting the condition changes thereby eliminating the need for manually providing additional decisional rules which force sequential evaluation in programming loops.

22. A method for automatically executing a manually entered decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task whenever the condition is fulfilled comprising:

automatically compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition;

automatically providing computer instructions which accomplish automatic and continuous iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting the condition changes;

automatically performing said task whenever said condition is fulfilled; and

resuming further processing each time said condition is fulfilled.

23. A method for automatically executing a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and for automatically performing the task whenever the condition is fulfilled comprising:

manually entering said decisional rule into computing means;

said computing means automatically compiling said decisional rule to parse said condition, automatically providing instructions which accomplish automatic and continuous iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting the condition changes and, automatically performing said task whenever said condition is fulfilled and resuming further processing each time said condition is fulfilled.

24. A system for automatically evaluating a decisional rule containing a task and a condition which must be fulfilled before the task can be performed and automatically performing the task when the condition is fulfilled comprising:

computing means including compiler means and executor means responsive to said compiler means; and

means for manually entering said decisional rule into said computing means, said decisional rule containing a condition and a task to be performed when said condition is fulfilled once; and

wherein said compiler means includes parsing means for isolating said condition and further includes means for determining whether evaluation of said condition are to continue after said condition is fulfilled once; and

wherein said executor means includes means for providing automatically and continuing iterative evaluations of whether said condition is fulfilled independent of whether data affecting said condition changes.

25. A method for automatically processing a series of WHEN/THEN statements including control commands which automatically halt further processing until a condition associates with each control command is fulfilled comprising:

manually entering a sequence of WHEN/THEN statements including one or more control commands each containing a condition into processing means;

wherein said processing means automatically processes each statement sequentially in said sequence, automatically halts processing of said statements upon the occurrence of one of said control commands, automatically and continuously provides iterative evaluation of whether said condition associated with said control command is fulfilled, and automatically resumes processing of the remainder of said statement in said sequence only upon the fulfillment of said condition associated with said control command.