Information processing device, method and program

Abstract

An information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a monitoring unit that monitors whether or not there is an object of position information which is a monitoring target and is used to control an automatic operation target or whether or not there is a change therein; and a collection-by-name processing unit that applies collection-by-name processing to a plurality of types of alias which is a name assigned to the position information, which is the monitoring target by the monitoring unit, and association of which with the position information is appropriate and notifies the monitoring unit of, as the target of the monitoring, the object of the position information associated with the alias, which is a target of the collection-by-name processing.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD Embodiments of the present invention relate to an information processing device, method, and program. [Background technology]

[0002] As one form of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), an architecture has been proposed in which a scenario relating to the control of automatic operations is separated from target information for the automatic operations (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1). [Prior art documents] [Non-patent literature]

[0003] [Non-Patent Document 1] 08 Collaborative Navigation Platform Technology to Simplify the Development of DX Solutions (Based on Automatic Operation that Easily Follows Changes in System Screens, etc.), Tsukuba Forum 2022, <URL: https: / / www.tsukuba-forum.jp / companylist_nttc3.html> Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In the architecture described above, the target information of multiple scenarios is consolidated into one and stored in a database for the target information, which has the disadvantage of causing the target information to become bloated.

[0005] This architecture requires monitoring the current status and changes of the control objects registered in the database for object information, and as the object information increases, the calculation time required for the monitoring process increases significantly.

[0006] This invention has been made in light of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an information processing device, method, and program that can optimize processing related to monitoring the control of automatic operation targets. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] An information processing device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a monitoring unit that monitors whether an object of location information to be monitored exists or has changed, which is information used to control an automatic operation target, and a name matching processing unit that performs name matching processing of multiple types of aliases that are names assigned to the location information to be monitored by the monitoring unit and that are appropriate to be associated with the location information, and notifies the monitoring unit that the object of the location information that is associated with the alias that is the subject of the name matching processing is the monitoring target.

[0008] An information processing method according to one aspect of the present invention is a method performed by an information processing device, and includes monitoring whether an object of location information to be monitored exists or has changed, which is information used to control an object to be automatically operated, performing a name matching process on multiple types of aliases that are names assigned to the location information to be monitored and that are appropriate to be associated with the location information, and using the object of the location information that is associated with the alias that is the subject of the name matching process as the object to be monitored. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present invention, it is possible to optimize the process related to the monitoring of the control of an automatic operation target. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an application example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a general relationship between object information and location information. [Figure 3]FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of location information name matching processing performed by an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hierarchy of location information. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a general search for location information. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a search for position information by an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing operation by the name identification processing unit of the information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of merged aliases in a table format. [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a first example of determination of identity of an object in position information. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a second example of determining the identity of an object in position information. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a third example of determination of the identity of objects in position information. [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an application example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, an information processing device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a business system management unit 10, a monitoring unit 20, a name identification processing unit 30, and a recording unit 40. The business system management unit 10 manages target information relating to, for example, RPA in an external business system in accordance with, for example, an operation from a user. The monitoring unit 20, for example, periodically monitors the contents of management by the business system management unit 10, monitors whether an object of the location information of the monitoring target, which is information used for controlling the automatic operation target, exists or has changed, and records the monitoring results in the recording unit 40. This location information is information necessary for controlling the automatic operation target.

[0012] The name matching processing unit 30 performs name matching processing of multiple types of aliases, which are names given to objects of location information that are the subject of monitoring by the monitoring unit 20 and are appropriate to be associated with the location information, notifies the monitoring unit 20 of the object of location information that corresponds to the alias that is the subject of this name matching processing as the object of location information that is the subject of monitoring, and records the processing results in the recording unit 40. The alias is information in which a name that is easy for a person, that is, a user, to understand is added to the location information, and is information that is cited when describing control content such as a scenario.

[0013] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a general relationship between object information and location information. In an architecture that separates and centrally manages target information, the location information and aliases of a large number of automated operation targets from multiple systems (symbol a in Figure 2) are registered in a database.

[0014] This requires monitoring and checking the current status of the large number of automated operation targets recorded in the target information, including whether there are any changes, and this increases the computational processing time required for the monitoring process, which is an issue.

[0015] In the example shown in Figure 2, the target information includes multiple types of aliases, such as the customer name, service name, plan name for the service, contract period, and service amount for aliases related to service operations, and the above monitoring is performed by comparing these various aliases with location information.

[0016] Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of location information name matching processing performed by an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a hierarchy of location information. As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment of the present invention, different aliases set to the same location information are merged and monitored together, thereby making it possible to improve the efficiency of the monitoring process (symbol a in FIG. 3).

[0017] Furthermore, in this embodiment, even if the location information is not exactly the same, as in the case of the service name and plan name shown in Figure 3, multiple types of aliases set to hierarchically close location information as shown in Figure 4 can be merged and monitored together to improve the efficiency of the monitoring process (symbol b in Figure 3).

[0018] In this embodiment, in an RPA architecture that separates control scenarios and target information, by overcoming the disadvantage of increased monitoring processing, it is possible to make maximum use of the architecture's merit of being able to smoothly respond to changes in the system screen, etc.

[0019] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a general search for location information. As shown in Fig. 5, in this embodiment, in a hierarchy represented by nodes where location information is defined and edges between nodes, location information, for example, the service name or plan name of an object corresponding to a node in the lowest layer, is searched hierarchically for each alias independently from the root node, which is the highest layer. For this reason, in the example shown in Fig. 5, it is necessary to search through the edges from the root node a total of four times.

[0020] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a search for position information by an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, as a result of the above-described name matching, location information that is set in common to the matched aliases may be defined in the node indicated by the symbol a in FIG. 6, for example.

[0021] In the example shown in Figure 6, starting from the root node, first, a search is made for location information defined in a node in an intermediate hierarchy (symbol a in Figure 6) that is set in common to the above-mentioned matched aliases, and when this location information is found, the location information defined in the node in the lower hierarchy can be traced hierarchically from this node.Therefore, the desired location information can be found by searching through the edges a total of three times from the root node, which reduces the number of times the edges are traversed compared to the example shown in Figure 5 above.

[0022] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing operation by the name identification processing unit of the information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. First, the name identification processor 30 acquires one alias from the target information in which multiple aliases are set (S11). The name identification processor 30 acquires the location information set in association with the alias acquired in S11 (S12). The name identification processor 30 starts searching for location information starting from the root node where the location information in the highest layer is defined (S13). The name identification processor 30 moves the search target down one level (S14). The name identification processor 30 generates position information defined for the node of the current layer that is the search target (S15).

[0023] The name matching processing unit 30 performs an identity determination, which is a determination of whether the location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched, generated in S15, exists in the list of location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched, which has already been recorded in the recording unit 40 (S16).

[0024] If the result of the judgment in S16 is that the same location information as the location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched does not exist in the list of location information already recorded in the recording unit 40 (No in S17), the name matching processing unit 30 adds the location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched, generated in S15, to the list of location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched, recorded in the recording unit 40, which is used in the judgment in S16 (S18).

[0025] On the other hand, if the result of the determination in S16 is that the same location information as the location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched exists in the list of location information already recorded in the recording unit 40 (Yes in S17), the name matching processing unit 30 registers the location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched, generated in S15, in the recording unit 40 as the name matching location, i.e., the location information set commonly to aliases including the alias obtained in S11, i.e., the location information set to the so-called name-matched alias (S19).

[0026] The name matching processing unit 30 registers the alias obtained in S11 and the location information defined for the node in the hierarchy below the current hierarchy to be searched, generated in S15, in the list of aliases for the name matching location recorded in the recording unit 40 (S20).

[0027] After the processing of S18 or S20, if the current layer to be searched has not yet reached the lowest layer (No in S21), the process returns to S14, and the subsequent processing is performed under the condition that the layer to be searched is one layer lower.

[0028] Furthermore, after processing S18 or S20, if the current hierarchy to be searched reaches the lowest hierarchy (Yes in S21) and all aliases have not been obtained from the target information in which multiple aliases are set (No in S22), the process returns to S11, and subsequent processing is performed under the condition that another alias has been obtained from the target information in which multiple aliases are set.

[0029] On the other hand, as described above, when the answer is "Yes" in S21 and all aliases have been obtained from the target information in which multiple aliases are set (Yes in S22), the series of processes by the name matching processing unit 30 ends.

[0030] Next, the name-identified aliases in the target information will be described. In this embodiment, for convenience, the location information is expressed as follows. "Root>A>B>C>D" “>” indicates a break in the hierarchy, and in the above example, the location information to be automatically operated is “an object at the first hierarchy level, one hierarchy below the root hierarchy, that has information “A”, which is at the second hierarchy level, that has information “B”, which is at the second hierarchy level, that has information “C”, which is at the third hierarchy level, that has information “D”, which is at the fourth hierarchy level, that has information “D”.

[0031] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the merged aliases in a table format. In the example shown in FIG. 8, four types of aliases recorded in the original target information include "alias (1)," "alias (2)," "alias (3)," and "alias (4)."

[0032] The location information of the object to be automatically operated in "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" is an object in the fourth layer having information "D" which is subordinate to an object in the first layer having information "A" which is one layer below the root layer, subordinate to an object in the second layer having information "B" which is subordinate to an object in the third layer having information "C".

[0033] The location information of the object to be automatically operated in "Alias ​​(3)" is an object in the fourth layer having information "H" which is subordinate to an object in the first layer having information "E" which is one layer below the root layer, subordinate to an object in the second layer having information "F" which is subordinate to an object in the third layer having information "G".

[0034] The location information of the object to be automatically operated in "Alias ​​(4)" is an object in the fourth layer having information "I" which is subordinate to an object in the first layer having information "E" which is one layer below the root layer, subordinate to an object in the second layer having information "F" which is subordinate to an object in the third layer having information "G".

[0035] As a result of processing the target information of the above contents by the name matching processing unit 30, for the above "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)", the location information of the object of automatic operation is both "Root>A>B>C>D", so the location information from the first layer to the lowest fourth layer is considered to be the same, and the above name matching position is expressed as "Root>A>B>C>D".

[0036] Furthermore, as a result of processing the target information of the above content by the name matching processing unit 30, the location information for the above "Alias ​​(3)" and "Alias ​​(4)" is deemed to match from the first to third levels, and the above name matching position is expressed as "Root>E>F>G". In addition, the location information for the alias (3) below the name matching location is represented as “>H”, which corresponds to the fourth level, and the location information for the alias (4) below the name matching location is represented as “>I”, which corresponds to the fourth level.

[0037] Next, the process of determining whether an object is the same as the process performed by the name identification processor 30 will be described. In the above explanation, the information about objects in each layer is abbreviated as "A," "B," or "C," and objects with the same abbreviated notation are determined to be the same object. However, in reality, object information holds various properties, and it is common for objects to be monitored to have the same target but different property items.

[0038] In such a case, the process of determining the identity of the object can include at least the following three types of processes. (1) Exact match (2) Property-specific judgment definition (3) Vectorization and threshold-based decision

[0039] FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a first example of determination of identity of objects in position information. This example corresponds to the above-mentioned "(1) Exact match." Here, an example of determining the identity of objects related to "alias (1)" and "alias (2)" shown in FIG. 8 will be described.

[0040] As shown in Figure 9, the information "A" of the first-level object corresponding to "Alias ​​(1)" includes the first property (referred to as property (1)) "Value A," the second property (referred to as property (2)) "Value B," and the third property (referred to as property (3)) "Value C."

[0041] Also, as shown in Figure 9, the information "A" of the first-level object corresponding to "Alias ​​(2)" includes a first property "Value A," a second property "Value B," and a third property "Value X."

[0042] In this configuration, in order for the first-level objects between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" to be determined to match, the values ​​of all properties at the first level between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" must match.

[0043] In the example shown in Figure 9, when comparing the properties of information "A" for the object at the first level in each alias, the values ​​of the first and second properties match between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)," but the value of the third property does not match between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)," so it is determined that the objects at the first level do not match between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)." This determination can also be made for objects at other levels corresponding to each alias. The same applies to the second and third examples below.

[0044] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a second example of determining the identity of an object in position information. This example corresponds to "(2) Judgment definition for each property" above. In the example shown in Fig. 10, definitions for judging identity of objects at each level corresponding to "alias (1)" and "alias (2)" are defined for each alias shown in Fig. 9. These definitions define conditions for each property type, such as whether properties of the same type of object at each level match among multiple types of aliases.

[0045] In the example shown in Figure 10, the definitions for determining whether an object at the first level matches between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" include a definition indicating the condition under which the value of the first property of the object at the first level matches completely between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)", a definition indicating the condition under which the value of the second property of the object at the first level matches at least partially between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)", and a definition indicating the condition under which the value of the third property of the object at the first level is not used to determine whether the object at the first level matches between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)".

[0046] In the example shown in Figure 10, the relationships between the various properties at the first level between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" satisfy the above definition, and it is determined that the objects at the first level between "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" match.

[0047] FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a third example of determination of the identity of objects in position information. This example corresponds to "(3) Determination by Vectorization and Threshold" above. In the example shown in Fig. 11, the identity of location information objects is determined for each layer based on the vectorized results of the Levenshtein distances of the property values ​​of location information objects corresponding to "Alias ​​(1)" and "Alias ​​(2)" for each of the aliases shown in Fig. 9. The number of elements in this vectorized result corresponds to the number of property types.

[0048] In the example shown in Figure 11, the vectors represented by the Levenshtein distance between the value "ABC" of the first property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (1)" and the value "ABC" of the first property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (2)", the Levenshtein distance between the value "DEF" of the second property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (1)" and the value "DEG" of the second property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (2)", and the Levenshtein distance between the value "HIJ" of the third property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (1)" and the value "IJK" of the third property of the object of location information at the first level corresponding to "alias (2)" are calculated by the name matching processing unit 30 according to the following formulas.

[0049] Vector [ Levenshtein(“ABC”,”ABC”) / (Length(“ABC”)+Length(“ABC”)), Levenshtein(“DEF”,”DEG”) / (Length(“DEF”)+Length(“DEG”)), Levenshtein(“HIJ”,”IJK”) / (Length(“HIJ”)+Length(“IJK”)), ]

[0050] The vector indicated by the maximum Levenshtein distance calculated by the above formula, i.e., the normalized value obtained by dividing by the distance obtained by adding up the lengths of the character string data of the properties to be compared, is calculated as follows: Vector [0.0 / 6.0, 1.0 / 6.0, 1.0 / 6.0] This calculated vector is further calculated as follows: Vector [0.0, 0.17, 0.17] The norm, which is the concept of the length of this calculated vector, is calculated as follows: Norm=0.24

[0051] When this calculated norm indicates that multiple types of aliases correspond, for example, one-to-one, to multiple pieces of location information that have identity, in this case, when the norm is below a predetermined threshold, the first-level objects corresponding to "alias (1)" and "alias (2)" shown in Figure 11 are determined to have identity by the name matching processing unit 30.

[0052] FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an information processing device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 12, the information processing device 100 according to the embodiment is configured, for example, by a server computer or a personal computer, and has a hardware processor 111A such as a CPU. A program memory 111B, a data memory 112, an input / output interface 113, and a communication interface 114 are connected to this hardware processor 111A via a bus 115. In the following, The communication interface 114 includes, for example, one or more wireless communication interface units, and enables transmission and reception of information to and from a communication network NW. As the wireless interface, for example, an interface that adopts a low-power wireless data communication standard such as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) is used.

[0053] The input / output interface 113 is connected to an input device 300 and an output device 400 that are attached to the information processing device 100 and used by a user or the like. The input / output interface 113 takes in operation data input by a user or the like via an input device 300 such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a touchpad, or a mouse, and outputs output data to an output device 400 including a display device using a liquid crystal or an organic electroluminescence (EL) display, etc. Note that the input device 300 and the output device 400 may be devices built into the information processing device 100, or may be input devices and output devices of other information terminals that can communicate with the information processing device 100 via a network NW.

[0054] The program memory 111B is a non-transitory tangible storage medium that is a combination of a non-volatile memory that can be written to and read from at any time, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD), and a non-volatile memory such as a read only memory (ROM), and stores programs necessary to execute various control processes, etc., according to one embodiment.

[0055] The data memory 112 is a tangible storage medium that is, for example, a combination of the above-mentioned nonvolatile memory and a volatile memory such as RAM (Random Access Memory), and is used to store various data acquired and created during various processing steps.

[0056] An information processing device 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention can be configured as a data processing system having a processing function unit implemented by software. The storage area used as the recording unit 40 or work memory by the information processing device 100 can be configured by using the data memory 112 shown in Fig. 12. However, these configured storage areas are not essential components within the information processing device 100, and may be areas provided in an external storage medium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory, or in a storage system such as a database server located in the cloud.

[0057] The processing function unit can be realized by having the hardware processor 111A read and execute a program stored in the program memory 111B. Note that the processing function unit may also be realized in various other forms, including an integrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field-programmable gate array (FPGA).

[0058] The methods described in each embodiment may be stored as a program (software means) that can be executed by a computer on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (e.g., a CD-ROM, a DVD, an MO, etc.), or a semiconductor memory (e.g., a ROM, a RAM, a flash memory, etc.), or may be transmitted and distributed via a communication medium. The program stored on the medium also includes a configuration program that configures the software means (including not only execution programs but also tables and data structures) that the computer executes. The computer that realizes this device reads the program stored on the recording medium and, in some cases, configures the software means using the configuration program, and executes the above-described processing by having the operation controlled by this software means. The term "recording medium" as used herein is not limited to a storage medium for distribution, but also includes a storage medium such as a magnetic disk or semiconductor memory installed inside the computer or in a device connected via a network.

[0059] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made in the implementation stage without departing from the spirit of the invention. Furthermore, the embodiments may be implemented in appropriate combinations, in which case the combined effects can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-described embodiments include various inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by combining selected elements from the disclosed elements. For example, if the problem can be solved and the desired effect can be obtained even if some elements are deleted from all elements shown in the embodiments, the configuration from which these elements are deleted can be extracted as an invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0060] 100...Information processing device 10. Business Systems Management Department 20...Monitoring Department 30...Name matching processing section 40...Recording section

Claims

1. a monitoring unit that monitors whether an object of location information to be monitored exists or has changed, the object being information used for controlling an automatic operation target; a name identification processing unit that performs a name identification process for a plurality of types of aliases that are names assigned to location information that is a monitoring target by the monitoring unit and that are appropriate to be associated with the location information, and notifies the monitoring unit of an object of the location information that is associated with the alias that is the target of the name identification process as the monitoring target; An information processing device comprising:

2. The name identification processing unit performing a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases associated with the same location information in any layer or a plurality of types of aliases associated with a plurality of identical location information; The information processing device according to claim 1 .

3. the location information object includes a plurality of types of properties; The name identification processing unit performing a name matching process for the plurality of types of aliases when all types of properties included in the object of the location information are the same among the plurality of types of aliases; The information processing device according to claim 2 .

4. the location information object includes a plurality of types of properties; The name identification processing unit performing a name matching process for the plurality of types of aliases when a predetermined type of property is the same among properties included in the object of the location information; The information processing device according to claim 1 .

5. the location information object includes a plurality of types of properties; The name identification processing unit performing a name matching process for the plurality of types of aliases when vectorized values ​​of properties corresponding to each of the plurality of types of aliases indicate that the plurality of types of aliases are associated with a plurality of pieces of location information having the same identity; The information processing device according to claim 1 .

6. The name identification processing unit calculating a Levenshtein distance between character string data of properties corresponding to each of the plurality of types of aliases, and calculating a vectorized value for each property type by dividing the Levenshtein distance by the maximum distance and normalizing the vectorized value; and performing a name matching process for the plurality of types of aliases when the norm of the vectorized value indicates that the plurality of types of aliases are associated with a plurality of identical location information. The information processing device according to claim 5 .

7. A method performed by an information processing device, monitoring whether an object of location information to be monitored exists or has changed, the object being information used for controlling an automatic operation target; performing a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases that are names assigned to the location information to be monitored and that are appropriate to be associated with the location information, and using the object of the location information that is associated with the alias that is the target of the name matching process as the monitoring target; A method for providing

8. An information processing program that causes a processor to function as each of the units of the information processing device according to claim 1 .

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