<12) United States Patent (10) Patent N0.: US 6,484,036 B1
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SCHEDULING MOBILE AGENTS UTILIZING RAPID TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION Inventors: Gregory B. Sorkin, Pleasantville, NY (US); Mariusz A. Fus, Lexington, KY (US); Geraldine M. Preston, Apex, NC (US); Baruch M. Schieber, White Plains, NY (US); Mark O. Carey, III, Raleigh, NC (US); David P. Williamson, Bronx, NY (US)
Primary Examiner—Lee Nguyen Assistant Examiner—Congvan Tran
(74) Attorney, Agent, 0r Firm—Ohlandt, Greeley, Ruggiero & Perle, LLP; Steven C. Kaufman, Esq.; IBM Corporation
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.
34 Claims, 2 Drawing Sheets
SCHEDULES, REVISED \\cHEDu|_Es
U.S. Patent NOV. 19, 2002 Sheet 2 0f 2 US 6,484,036 B1
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SCHEDULING MOBILE AGENTS UTILIZING RAPID TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for scheduling mobile personnel, such as travelling salesmen or repairmen that visit customer sites.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are many applications that require mobile personnel, also referred to herein as mobile agents, to visit a large number of different sites, which may change from day to day. As can be appreciated, the efficient scheduling of mobile agents has a significant impact on business costs. In particular, it is important to adapt to departures from plan caused by, for example, traffic congestion, by a repair job taking longer than expected, by a customer’s cancellation of a job, or by the discovery that resources other than expected, such as different parts, are required to complete a repair job.
The scheduling of mobile agents is typically performed in advance, with little responsiveness to changing situations. While there are existing passive systems that track mobile agents, any adaptation to the tracking data is performed manually, if at all. For example, one manual approach is exemplified by limousine drivers, who stay in radio contact with a dispatcher who may reschedule them based on their reports. As can be realized, the conventional approaches to the scheduling of mobile agents are less than optimal.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object and advantage of this invention to provide an improved mobile agent scheduling procedure that overcomes the foregoing and other problems.
It is another object and advantage of this invention for dynamically and adaptively scheduling and rescheduling individual ones of mobile agents to individual ones of jobs.
The foregoing and other problems are overcome and the objects of the invention are realized by methods and apparatus in accordance with embodiments of this invention.
Disclosed is a system and a method 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 employ, for the mobile agents, radio transmission devices into which text messages may be entered, and upon which text messages may be displayed.
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.
A message transmitted from the dispatcher may include information for specifying at least one of a location and nature of the mobile agent’s next scheduled activity.
Preferably, a particular mobile agent is informed by the dispatcher of a next scheduled activity for that mobile agent on a “just-in-time” basis, that is, just prior to the time that the mobile agent requires the information pertaining to the next scheduled activity.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above set forth and other features of the invention are made more apparent in the ensuing Detailed Description of the Invention when read in conjunction with the attached Drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a dispatch and scheduling system that is constructed and operated in accordance with this invention for bidirectionally communicating with individual ones of a plurality of mobile agents; and
FIG. 2 is a logic flow diagram of a method that is implemented in the system of FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The teachings of this invention relate generally to the scheduling of mobile agents. Mobile agents may be humans, for example travelling salesmen or repairmen that visit customer sites. Herein a mobile agent will be referred to for simplicity as “he”, although mobile agents could be of either sex, and furthermore need not be human. By example, mobile agents could be embodied as repair vehicles, or as robots, etc.
More particularly, the teachings of this invention relate to an automated, dynamic rescheduling technique that incorporates rapid feedback from mobile agents, for example via handheld radio devices. In the examples given below the mobile agents are human workers, but it is possible that the mobile agents could be machines. In this case, and by example, a crew of cleaning machines could have their tasks reallocated if one machine breaks down, or if entry is restricted for some reason to a particular area that is scheduled to be cleaned, etc.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1 for showing a block diagram of a dispatch and scheduling system 1 that is constructed and operated in accordance with this invention. The dispatch and scheduling system 1 provides bidirectional communications with individual ones of a plurality of mobile agents 10. In accordance with an aspect of this invention, there are one or more communications channels 2 between the mobile agents 10 and a dispatcher 12. The dispatcher 12 can be co-located with a scheduling site that includes a scheduling engine 14. The dispatcher 12 may be implemented in software running on a suitable computer, or it could be a function performed by a human operator. The communications channels 2 are made through a transmitter/ receiver (transceiver) 15, which may be an RF signal transceiver operating in any suitable frequency band(s) through
|
