WO2024121992A1

WO2024121992A1 - Information processing device, method, and program

Info

Publication number: WO2024121992A1
Application number: PCT/JP2022/045163
Authority: WO
Inventors: 英毅小矢; 一中島
Original assignee: 日本電信電話株式会社
Priority date: 2022-12-07
Filing date: 2022-12-07
Publication date: 2024-06-13

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

Information processing device, method and program

Embodiments of the present invention relate to an information processing device, method, and program.

As a form of RPA (Robotic Process Automation), an architecture has been proposed that separates the scenario for controlling automated operations from the target information for the automated operations (see, for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

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

In this architecture, it is necessary to monitor the current status and changes of the control targets registered in the target information database, so as the target information increases as described above, the calculation time required for the monitoring process increases significantly.

This invention was made in light of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an information processing device, method, and program that can optimize the processing related to the monitoring of the control of an automatic operation target.

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, the object being used to control an automatic operation target, and a name matching processing unit that performs a name matching process on multiple types of aliases that are names given 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 of the object of the location information that is associated with the alias that is the subject of the name matching process as the monitoring target.

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, which is information used to control an automatic operation target, exists or has changed, performing a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases that are names given 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 monitoring target.

The present invention makes it possible to optimize the process of monitoring the control of automatic operation targets.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an application example of an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a general relationship between object information and position information. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a name matching process of location information 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. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a general search for location information. 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 is a flow chart showing an example of processing operation by a name matching processing unit of an information processing device according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the merged aliases in a table format. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a first example of object identity determination of position information. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a second example of the identity determination of objects of position information. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a third example of the identity determination of objects of position information. Figure 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.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described 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 apparatus 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, operations 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 this monitoring result in the recording unit 40. This location information is information necessary for controlling the automatic operation target.

The name matching processing unit 30 performs a name matching process on 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 corresponding to the alias that is the subject of this name matching process as the object of location information that is the subject of monitoring, and records the processing result in the recording unit 40.
The above-mentioned 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 control contents such as a scenario are described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a general relationship between object information and position information.
In the architecture in which target information is separated and managed collectively, the location information and aliases of a large number of automated operation targets of a large number of systems (reference symbol a in FIG. 2) are registered in a database.

As a result, it is necessary to monitor and check the current status of the large number of automated operation targets recorded in the target information, such as whether there are any changes, and so on, and the increased calculation time required for the monitoring process is an issue.

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

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a name matching process of location information by an information processing apparatus 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).

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 FIG. 3, multiple types of aliases set to hierarchically close location information as shown in FIG. 4 can be merged and monitored together to improve the efficiency of the monitoring process (symbol b in FIG. 3).

In this embodiment, in an RPA architecture that separates control scenarios and target information, the disadvantage of increased monitoring processing is overcome, making it possible to make maximum use of the merit of the architecture, which is the ability to smoothly respond to changes in system screens, etc.

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. Therefore, in the example shown in Fig. 5, it is necessary to search from the root node through the edges a total of four times.

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-mentioned name matching, location information that is set in common to the matched aliases may be defined in the node indicated by reference character a in FIG. 6, for example.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, first, a search is made from the root node for location information defined in a node in an intermediate hierarchy (symbol a in FIG. 6) that is set in common to the matched aliases. When this location information is found, the location information defined in the nodes in the lower hierarchy is 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 passed compared to the example shown in FIG. 5 above.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing operation by the name identification processing unit of the information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The name identification processor 30 first 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 at which the location information in the highest hierarchy is defined (S13).
The name matching processor 30 moves the search target down by 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).

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

If the result of the determination in S16 is that the same location information defined for the node of the current hierarchy to be searched is not present 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 determination in S16 (S18).

On the other hand, if the result of the determination in S16 is that the same location information defined for the node of the current hierarchical level being 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 hierarchical level being searched, generated in S15, in the recording unit 40 as the name matching location, that is, the location information that is set commonly to aliases including the alias obtained in S11, that is, the location information that is set to the so-called matched aliases (S19).

The matching processor 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 matching location recorded in the recording unit 40 (S20).

After processing 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 step lower.

Furthermore, after processing of S18 or S20, if the current hierarchy to be searched has reached the lowest hierarchy (Yes in S21) and not all aliases have 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.

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

Next, the name-matched 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 having information "D" at the fourth hierarchy level, which is one level below the root hierarchy, which is subordinate to an object having information "A" at the first hierarchy level, which is one level below the root hierarchy, which is subordinate to an object having information "B" at the second hierarchy level, which is one level below that, which is subordinate to an object having information "C" at the third hierarchy level, which is one level below that."

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

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

The location information of the object to be automatically operated in "Alias (3)" is an object in the fourth hierarchy having information "H", which is subordinate to an object in the first hierarchy having information "E", which is subordinate to an object in the second hierarchy having information "F", which is subordinate to an object in the third hierarchy having information "G".

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

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

In addition, as a result of processing the target information of the above content by the name matching processing unit 30, for the above "alias (3)" and "alias (4)", the location information is deemed to match from the first to third hierarchical levels, and the above name matching position is expressed as "root>E>F>G".
In addition, the subordinate location information from the above-mentioned name matching position for alias (3) is represented as “>H”, which corresponds to the fourth hierarchical level, and the subordinate location information from the above-mentioned name matching position for alias (4) is represented as “>I”, which corresponds to the fourth hierarchical level.

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

In such a case, the process of determining the identity of the object may include at least the following three types of processes.
(1) Exact match (2) Judgment definition for each property (3) Vectorization and judgment based on threshold

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a first example of identity determination of objects of 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.

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

Also, as shown in FIG. 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."

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 in the first level must match between "Alias (1)" and "Alias (2)."

In the example shown in FIG. 9, when comparing the properties of information "A" of the first-level object 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 first-level objects do not match between "Alias (1)" and "Alias (2)". This determination can also be made for objects in other levels that correspond to each alias. The same applies to the second and third examples below.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a second example of the identity determination of objects of position information.
This example corresponds to the above "(2) Judgment definition for each property". In the example shown in Fig. 10, definitions of identity judgment for objects in each hierarchy corresponding to "alias (1)" and "alias (2)" are defined for each alias shown in Fig. 9. This definition defines conditions for each type of property, such as whether properties of the same type of object in each hierarchy match among multiple types of aliases.

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

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.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a third example of the identity determination of objects of position information.
This example corresponds to "(3) Determination by vectorization and threshold value" above. In the example shown in Fig. 11, the identity of location information objects is determined for each hierarchical level based on the vectorized result of the Levenshtein distance of each property value of the location information objects corresponding to "alias (1)" and "alias (2)" for each alias shown in Fig. 9. The number of elements of this vectorized result corresponds to the number of property types.

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

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

The vector represented by the maximum Levenshtein distance calculated by the above formula, that is, the normalized value obtained by dividing the maximum distance 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

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 FIG. 11 are determined to have identity by the name matching processing unit 30.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In the example shown in Fig. 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.

An input device 300 and an output device 400 that are attached to the information processing device 100 and are used by a user or the like are connected to the input/output interface 113 .
The input/output interface 113 takes in operation data input by a user or the like through an input device 300 such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a touchpad, a mouse, or the like, and outputs output data to an output device 400 including a display device using liquid crystal or organic EL (Electro Luminescence), etc., for display. 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 the network NW.

The program memory 111B is a non-transient tangible storage medium that combines a non-volatile memory such as a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) that can be written to and read from at any time, with a non-volatile memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), and stores the programs necessary to execute various control processes, etc. according to one embodiment.

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

An information processing apparatus 100 according to an 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 a storage system such as an external storage medium such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory, or a database server located in the cloud.

The above processing function unit can be realized by having the above hardware processor 111A read and execute a program stored in the program memory 111B. Note that this processing function unit may also be realized in a variety of other forms, including integrated circuits such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)) or an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).

The methods described in each embodiment can be stored as a program (software means) that can be executed by a computer on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk (floppy disk, hard disk, etc.), optical disk (CD-ROM, DVD, MO, etc.), semiconductor memory (ROM, RAM, Flash memory, etc.), and can be distributed by transmitting it via a communication medium. The programs stored on the medium also include a setting 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 recorded on the recording medium, and in some cases, configures the software means using the setting program, and executes the above-mentioned processing by having the operation controlled by this software means. Note that the recording medium referred to in this specification is not limited to a recording medium for distribution, but also includes storage media such as a magnetic disk or semiconductor memory installed inside the computer or in a device connected via a network.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified in various ways during implementation without departing from the gist of the invention. The embodiments may also be implemented in appropriate combination, in which case the combined effects can be obtained. Furthermore, the above-described embodiments include various inventions, and various inventions can be extracted by combinations selected from the multiple constituent elements disclosed. For example, if the problem can be solved and an effect can be obtained even if some constituent elements are deleted from all the constituent elements shown in the embodiments, the configuration from which these constituent elements are deleted can be extracted as an invention.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100: Information processing device 10: Business system management unit 20: Monitoring unit 30: Name matching processing unit 40: Recording unit

Claims

a monitoring unit that monitors whether an object of location information to be monitored, which is information used for controlling an automatic operation target, exists or has changed;
a name matching processing unit that performs a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases that are names given 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 matching process as the monitoring target;
An information processing device comprising:
The name identification processing unit includes:
performing a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases associated with the same location information in any one of the hierarchical levels or a plurality of types of aliases associated with a plurality of location information having the same identity;
The information processing device according to claim 1 .
The location information object includes a plurality of types of properties,
The name identification processing unit is
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 .
The location information object includes a plurality of types of properties,
The name identification processing unit includes:
performing a name matching process for the plurality of types of aliases when a predetermined type of property among properties included in the object of the location information is the same among the plurality of types of aliases;
The information processing device according to claim 1 .
The location information object includes a plurality of types of properties,
The name identification processing unit includes:
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 correspond to a plurality of pieces of location information having the same identity;
The information processing device according to claim 1 .
The name identification processing unit includes:
determining a Levenshtein distance between character string data of a property corresponding to each of the plurality of types of aliases, and obtaining a vectorized value for each property type by dividing the Levenshtein distance by a 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 correspond to a plurality of pieces of location information having the same identity;
The information processing device according to claim 5 .
A method performed by an information processing device, comprising:
monitoring whether an object of location information to be monitored, which is information used for controlling an automatic operation target, exists or has changed;
performing a name matching process for a plurality of types of aliases that are names given to the location information to be monitored and that are appropriate to be associated with the location information, and using an object of the location information associated with the alias that is the subject of the name matching process as the monitoring target;
A method for providing the above.
An information processing program that causes a processor to function as each of the units of the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.