Intelligent planning and calendaring system with cueing feature and floating tasks

• US 6,047,260 A
• Filed: 06/05/1997
• Issued: 04/04/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Attention Control Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Attention Control Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Levinson, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MacDonald, Allen R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CRECCA, MICHELE S
• Application Number:
  US08/869,504
• Time in Patent Office: 1,034 Days
• Field of Search: 705/8, 705/9
• US Class Current: 705/7.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment

Abstract

A method for intelligently planning is provided, comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of tasks that a user needs to perform, each task having an earliest start time, a latest stop time, a duration for completing the event and a reward value for completing the event, the tasks including a fixed task having the duration being equal to the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time and a floating task having a duration that is less than the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time, arranging said fixed task into a plan for the user based on the earliest start time, duration and reward of the fixed task, determining an actual start time for the floating task within the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time based on the earliest start time and duration of the fixed task, and arranging said floating task into the plan for the user based on the selected actual start time and the reward of the floating task. A system for intelligently planning a series of events into a plan is also provided.

Claims

1. An intelligent planning system for calendars for dynamically detecting and correcting plan errors caused by calendar changes, comprising:

a computer system comprising an input module, a storage module, a planning module and an output module;

said input module further comprising means for receiving a plurality of task descriptions, each task description describing a task to be performed by the user of the system and including fixed tasks and floating tasks, the floating task having a duration that is less than the time period between an earliest start time and a latest stop time, wherein a planned start time of the floating task is determined by said planning module and is within the interval between the earliest start time and the latest stop time of the floating task minus the duration of the floating task;

said storage module further comprises means for receiving said task descriptions from said input module and means for storing a current plan comprising the plurality of task descriptions;

said planning module further comprising means for automatically detecting and correcting errors in the current plan that occur whenever the current plan is modified, the planning module further comprising means for adjusting one or more of the planned start time and the duration of the floating task to correct errors in the current plan; and

said output module further comprising means for presenting the current plan information to the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said error detecting and correcting means further comprises means for detecting one or more of interfering tasks, ineffective tasks and irrelevant tasks and means, in response to the detection of these plan errors, for modifying the current plan by one of modifying the task description, adding a new task to the current plan, removing a task from the current plan, replacing a task within the current plan with a new task, and asking the user to select an option to modify the current plan.

3. The intelligent planning system of claim 2, wherein said task description further comprises a plurality of properties about the task comprising an earliest start time, a latest stop time, a duration, a planned start time, and a reward value, the task descriptions including a fixed task and a floating task, the fixed task having a duration equal to the time period between the earliest start time and latest stop time, and the floating task having a duration that is less than the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time, wherein the planned start time of said fixed task is the same as the earliest start time of the fixed task and the planned start time of the floating task is determined by said planning module and is within the interval between earliest start time and the latest stop time of the floating task minus the duration of the floating task.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said error detecting means comprises means for detecting interfering tasks including two or more tasks in the current plan with overlapping intervals between the planned start time and the stop time and tasks that compete for the same resources, means for correcting interfering tasks by shifting the planned start time of a floating task so that the planned times of the tasks no longer overlap or the resource is available;

and means for detecting and correcting shifted tasks that are delayed beyond their latest stop times, further comprising means for shifting the planned start time of the task wherein the shifting of the start time may change the sequence of tasks in the current plan.

5. The intelligent planning system of claim 3, wherein said input module further comprises means for receiving condition data that describes the status of dynamic conditions about a task, wherein said storage module further comprises means for receiving said dynamic condition data and said task description further comprising condition data describing conditions that must be true before, during or after a task can be executed, and wherein the error detecting means comprises means for detecting ineffective tasks comprising means for detecting tasks with conditions that are not true, and

wherein said error correction means further comprises means for correcting ineffective tasks by one of adding new tasks to the current plan to achieve said conditions, and one of replacing the ineffective task in said current plan with a new task, removing the ineffective task from the current plan and reordering the current plan.

6. The intelligent planning system of claim 3, wherein the task description further comprises data describing one or more prerequisite tasks that must be completed before the task can be executed, and wherein said means for error detecting further comprising means for detecting ineffective tasks which comprises means for detecting tasks that are not preceded by the prerequisite tasks in said current plan and means for correcting ineffective tasks comprising means for adding said prerequisite tasks into said current plan, means for replacing the ineffective task in said current plan, means for removing the ineffective task from the current plan and means for reordering the tasks in the current plan.

7. The intelligent planning system of claim 3, wherein said reward for each task description further comprises one or more metrics including task priority and task score.

8. The intelligent planning system of claim 1, wherein the output module further comprises cueing means for reminding a user when to start and stop tasks according to the current plan, wherein the input module further comprises means for receiving a cue response from the user in response to the cueing means, wherein said cue response may override said current plan, and wherein said planning module further comprises means for automatically detecting and correcting plan errors caused by said cue overrides.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said planning module further comprises means for automatically detecting and correcting errors in the current plan caused by the cue override in real-time before, during and after cueing the user to start and stop each step in said current plan.

10. The intelligent planning system of claim 1, wherein said planning module further comprises means for generating one or more competing plan variations each having a modification to the current plan including one or more of different planned start time, different duration, different latest stop time, different priority, and adding and replacing different tasks and different resources, means for determining a reward value for each plan variation, means for selecting a plan variation with the highest determined reward value, and means for updating said current plan with the selected plan variation.

11. The intelligent planning system of claim 1, wherein said task comprises a script including a programmed sequence of fixed tasks, floating tasks, and other scripts.

12. The intelligent planning system of claim 11, wherein said input module further comprises means for receiving condition data that describes the status of dynamic conditions about a task and wherein said script includes conditional and iterative control statements whereby a different sequence of tasks within the script will be executed depending on the value of the condition data.

13. The intelligent planning system of claim 11, wherein said scripts further comprise choice control statements that describe a plurality of choices for resources and tasks whereby different resources or tasks will be used within said script depending on the choice that is selected by the planning module.

14. The intelligent planning system of claim 12, wherein said scripts further comprise condition tests that determine the truth of conditions whereby the current plan fails if the condition fails.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said planning module further comprises means for simulating the execution of the current plan to generate simulated plan outcomes, means for detecting and correcting errors in the current plan by analyzing the simulated plan outcomes, and means for updating said current plan based on the selected plan variation.

16. The intelligent planning system of claim 1, wherein said planning module further comprises means for simulating the execution of one or more plan variations of the current plan to generate simulated plan outcomes and reward values for each plan variation, means for detecting and correcting errors in the plan variations by analyzing the simulated plan outcomes for different plan variations, means for selecting the plan variation with the highest reward value, and means for updating said current plan with the selected plan variation.

17. The intelligent planning system of claim 1, wherein the output module further comprises an execution module and wherein

said input module further comprising means for receiving a goal list;

said storage module further comprising means for receiving said goal list from said input module to generate a current plan having one or more tasks;

said planning module further comprising means for automatically detecting and correcting errors in the current plan that may occur whenever a plan trigger event occurs and means for generating plan rules that describe when to start and stop each task in the current plan, said plan rules comprising an antecedent clause describing the antecedent conditions necessary to start and stop a task and a consequent clause identifying the action to be taken, each plan rule directing the execution module to start, stop, or modify a task when said antecedent conditions are true; and

said execution module comprising means for starting and stopping a task according to said plan rules by presenting cues to the user to start and stop goals when the antecedent clause or a plan rule is true, and means for receiving a plurality of cue responses from the user, the cue responses overriding the current plan by causing a plan trigger event.

18. The intelligent planning system of claim 17 further comprising a script library containing a plurality of scripts, each script comprising a programmed sequence of one or more tasks and scripts, wherein said planning module further comprises means for executing said scripts by executing the programmed sequence of one or more tasks and scripts.

19. The intelligent planning system of claim 18, wherein said input module further comprises means for receiving condition data that describes the status of dynamic conditions about a task, the dynamic condition describing conditions which are not known at the time of the creation of the current plan and wherein said scripts further comprise one of conditional and iterative control branches of task sequences within in the script whereby a different sequence of tasks within the script will be executed depending on the value of the condition data.

20. The intelligent planning system of claim 17, wherein said scripts further comprise condition tests that determine the truth of conditions whereby the current plan fails if the condition fails.

21. The intelligent planning system of claim 17, wherein said scripts further comprise a choice point comprising a set of competing choices for resources or tasks to be used within a script such that one resource or task must be selected from the choice set before the next step in the script can be executed, the consequent clause of the plan rule further directing the execution module to choose the resources or tasks selected by the planning module.

22. The intelligent planning system of claim 17, wherein said input module further comprises means for receiving condition data that describes the status of dynamic conditions about a task, the dynamic condition describing conditions which are not known at the time of the creation of the current plan, wherein the plan trigger events further comprise a goal changed event, a condition changed event, a deadline near event and an execution failure event, said input module further comprising means for detecting a changed goal and for sending a goal-changed message to said plan module when the user has changed the goal list and means for detecting a changed condition event and for sending a condition-changed message to said plan module when a condition changes, and

said execution module further comprising means for detecting a changed condition and for sending a condition-changed message to said plan module, means for detecting an approaching deadline and for sending a deadline-near message to said plan module, and means for detecting that a task has failed if a condition fails prior, during or after execution and for sending an execution failure message to said plan module.

23. The intelligent planning system of claim 17, wherein said planning module further comprises means for simulating the execution of the current plan and a plurality of plan variations in the simulation mode to generate simulated plan variation outcomes including a reward value, each plan variation having one or more modifications to the current plan including different actual start time, different duration, different latest stop time, different priority, and adding and replacing different tasks and different resources, means for detecting and correcting errors in the plan variations by analyzing the simulated plan variation outcomes for different plan variations, means for selecting the plan variation with the highest expected reward value, and means to update said current plan with the selected plan variation.

24. The intelligent planning system of claim 17, wherein the plan error detection means further comprises means for detecting one or more of interfering goals, ineffective goals and irrelevant goals and means, in response to the detection of these plan errors, for changing the plan rules that comprises one of modifying the goal description, adding a new goal to the current plan, removing a goal from the current plan, replacing a goal within the current plan with a new goal and asking the user to select the option to modify the current plan.

25. The intelligent planning system of claim 24, wherein said task description further comprises a plurality of goal properties including an earliest start time, a latest stop time, a duration, a planned start time, and a reward value, the task descriptions including a fixed task and a floating task, the fixed task having a duration equal to the time period between the earliest start time and latest stop time and the floating task having a duration equal to less than the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time, wherein the planned start time of said fixed task is the same as the earliest start time of the fixed task and the planned start time of the floating task is determined by said planning module and is within the interval between earliest start time and the latest stop time of the floating task minus the duration of the floating task.

26. The intelligent system of claim 24, wherein said means for detecting interfering goals includes two or more goals in the current plan with overlapping intervals between the planned start time and the stop time and goals competing for the same resource, means for correcting interfering goals by shifting the planned start time of a floating goal so that the start and stop times of the goals no longer overlap or the competing resource is available, means for detecting and correcting shifted goals that are delayed beyond their latest stop times, and further comprising means for shifting the start time of the goal wherein the shifting of the start time changes the sequence of goals in the current plan.

27. The intelligent planning system of claim 24, wherein said input module further comprises means for receiving condition data that describes the status of dynamic conditions about a goal, wherein said storage module further comprises means for receiving said dynamic condition data and said goal description further comprising condition data describing conditions that must be true before, after or during a goal can be achieved, and wherein the means for detecting ineffective goals comprises means for detecting goals with conditions that are not true prior or after execution of the goal and goals that are not preceded by its preconditions, and

wherein said means for correcting ineffective goals comprising one of adding new goals to the current plan to achieve said conditions and replacing the ineffective goal in said current plan with a new goal.

28. The intelligent planning system of claim 24, wherein the task description further comprises data describing one or more prerequisite goals that must be completed before the goal can be executed, and

wherein said means for detecting ineffective goals comprises means for detecting goals in the plan that are not preceded by the prerequisite goals in said current plan and means for correcting ineffective goals comprising means for adding said prerequisite goals into said current plan, means for replacing the ineffective goal in said current plan, means for removing the ineffective goal from the current plan and means for reordering the goals in the current plan.

29. An intelligent planning system for dynamically detecting and correcting plan errors caused by calendar changes, comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of task descriptions, each task description describing a task to be performed by the user of the system and further comprising a plurality of properties about the task comprising an earliest start time, a latest stop time, a duration, a planned start time, and a reward value, the task descriptions including a fixed task and a floating task, the fixed task having a duration equal to the time period between the earliest start time and latest stop time, and the floating task having a duration that is less than the time period between the earliest start time and the latest stop time, wherein the planned start time of said fixed task is the same as the earliest start time of the fixed task and the planned start time of the floating task is within the interval between earliest start time and the latest stop time of the floating task minus the duration of the floating task;

means for generating a current plan comprising the plurality of task descriptions, the current plan including fixed and floating tasks;

means for automatically detecting and correcting errors in the current plan, the error correcting means further comprising means for changing one or more of the planned start time and the duration of the floating task so that it is still between the earliest start time and the latest stop time in order to correct the plan; and

means for presenting the current plan information to the user.