The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 12, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 02, 1998
Yuri V. Smirnov, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Phillip C. Nelson, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey B. Winner, Los Altos, CA (US);
Yuh-Wen Soung, Saratoga, CA (US);
John L. Flight, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
printCafe System, Inc., Pittsburg, PA (US);
Abstract
A directed graph includes a first number of state nodes and a second number of task nodes. The task nodes are interconnected with the state nodes to define one or more paths through the directed graph, each of the paths including an alternating series of one or more of the state nodes and one or more of the task nodes. Thus, any predecessor state node in one of the paths represents a precondition for a subsequent task node along that path. Further, any following state node of that task node represents a result of applying one or more actions that correspond to the task node. The state nodes may be virtual representations of inventory items of a manufacturing environment. Thus, collectively the state nodes may define a bill of materials for the manufacturing environment. Similarly, the task nodes may each define a virtual representation of a manufacturing process within the manufacturing environment. In other words, the task nodes may collectively define routings for the manufacturing environment.