Method and apparatus for scheduling mobile agents utilizing rapid two-way communication
First Claim
1. A system for scheduling mobile agents, said system comprising a dispatcher, at least one data processor that embodies a scheduling engine, and a transceiver coupled to said dispatcher for performing two-way communication with mobile agents through mobile agent transceivers, said dispatcher being responsive to a reception of a signal transmitted from a mobile agent for entering the received signal into said scheduling engine, said scheduling engine being responsive to an occurrence of a triggering event and to signals received from mobile agents for recomputing a schedule of activities for a plurality of mobile agents, and for causing information descriptive of the recomputed schedule to be selectively transmitted through said transceiver to none, one, or more than one mobile agent.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and a method is disclosed for scheduling mobile agents. The system includes a dispatcher and at least one data processor that embodies a scheduling engine. A transceiver is coupled to the dispatcher for performing two-way communication with mobile agents through mobile agent transceivers. The dispatcher is responsive to a reception of a message or signal that is transmitted from a mobile agent for entering the received signal into the scheduling engine. The scheduling engine is responsive to an occurrence of a triggering event and to signals received from mobile agents for recomputing a schedule of activities for a plurality of the mobile agents, and for causing information descriptive of the recomputed schedule to be selectively transmitted to none, one, or more than one of the mobile agents through the transceiver. The two-way communication can use radio devices capable of entering and displaying text messages. A signal transmitted from the mobile agent may include information for specifying, by example, that the mobile agent has arrived at the location of a next scheduled activity; or that the mobile agent has completed a scheduled activity; or that the mobile agent has failed to complete a scheduled activity; or that the mobile agent is extending a duration of a currently scheduled activity beyond the time scheduled for the termination of the current activity; or that the mobile agent lacks one or more resources needed to complete a current activity; or that the mobile agent lacks one or more skills needed to complete the current activity.
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Citations
34 Claims
- 1. A system for scheduling mobile agents, said system comprising a dispatcher, at least one data processor that embodies a scheduling engine, and a transceiver coupled to said dispatcher for performing two-way communication with mobile agents through mobile agent transceivers, said dispatcher being responsive to a reception of a signal transmitted from a mobile agent for entering the received signal into said scheduling engine, said scheduling engine being responsive to an occurrence of a triggering event and to signals received from mobile agents for recomputing a schedule of activities for a plurality of mobile agents, and for causing information descriptive of the recomputed schedule to be selectively transmitted through said transceiver to none, one, or more than one mobile agent.
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14. A method for scheduling mobile agents, comprising steps of:
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providing a plurality of mobile agents individual ones of which operate in accordance with an associated first schedule;
upon an occurrence of a schedule-related event, transmitting a signal from a mobile agent, the signal comprising information for specifying a nature of the schedule-related event;
receiving the signal and inputting the signal into a scheduling engine;
upon an occurrence of a triggering event, computing a second schedule that may differ from the first schedule for the mobile agent, the computation of the second schedule considering the information that comprises the received signal; and
selectively transmitting the second schedule to none, one, or more than one mobile agent. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification