1. A functional fluorinated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (\u201cF-POSS\u201d) comprising:
a chemical structure:
where each Rf represents a nonreactive, fluorinated organic group; and
R1 represents a first monovalent organic group comprising at least two carbon atoms and R2 represents hydrogen or a second monovalent organic group comprising at least two carbon atoms.
2. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein Rf represents \u2014CH2CH2(CF2)7CF3.
3. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein the R1 is selected from a group consisting of \u2014(CH2)7CH3, \u2014CH2CH2CH2OC(O)CH\u2550CH2, and \u2014CH2CH2CH2OC(O)C(CH3)\u2550CH2.
4. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein the first monovalent organic group, the second monovalent group, or both comprises at least three carbon atoms.
5. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein Rf represents a fluorinated alkyl group.
6. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein each Rf is separately selected from the group consisting of fluorotetradecyl, fluorododecyl, fluorodecyl, fluorooctyl, fluorohexyl, and hexafluoro-i-butyl.
7. The functional F-POSS of claim 1, wherein each fluorinated alkyl group includes at least four carbons.
8. A functional fluorinated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (\u201cF-POSS\u201d) comprising:
a chemical structure:
where each Rf represents a fluorinated alkyl group; and
R1 represents a first group having at least two carbon atoms and R2 represents hydrogen or a second group having at least two carbon atoms.
9. The functional F-POSS of claim 8, wherein R1 is selected from the group consisting of \u2014(CH2)7CH3, C6H5, CH\u2550CH2, \u2014(CH2)CH\u2550CH2, \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)CH\u2550CH2, and \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)C(CH3)\u2550CH2.
10. The functional F-POSS of claim 9, wherein R2 is selected from the group consisting of \u2014CH3, \u2014(CH2)7CH3, \u2014C6H5, \u2014CH\u2550CH2, (CH2)CH\u2550CH2, \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)CH\u2550CH2, and \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)C(CH3)\u2550CH2.
11. The functional F-POSS of claim 8, wherein each of R1 and R2 is separately selected from the group consisting of \u2014CH3, \u2014(CH2)7CH3, \u2014C6H5, \u2014CH\u2550CH2, \u2014(CH2)CH\u2550CH2, \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)CH\u2550CH2, and \u2014(CH2)3OC(O)C(CH3)\u2550CH2.
12. The functional F-POSS of claim 8, wherein each Rf is separately selected from the group consisting of fluorotetradecyl, fluorododecyl, fluorodecyl, fluorooctyl, fluorohexyl, and hexafluoro-i-butyl.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A system for dispatching a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the system comprising:
A) at least one first storage device for maintaining a ticket database;
B) at least one second storage device for maintaining a technician database;
C) at least one first processor programmed to implement a scheduling engine for:
C1) allocating the plurality of locate technicians to the plurality of locate activities, and
C2) scheduling the plurality of locate activities; and
D) at least one second processor programmed to implement a dispatch engine for:
D1) retrieving ticket information from the ticket database;
D2) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database;
D3) retrieving technician information from the technician database, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians; and
D4) providing inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information, further comprising providing the latest start time to the scheduling engine in association with the locate activity.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one first processor and the at least one second processor are a same processor.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein:
providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises determining an earliest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information; and
the earliest start time and the latest start time for the locate activity fall on different calendar days.
4. The system of claim 3, wherein the earliest start time for the locate activity is determined based at least in part on a do-not-mark-before date obtained from the ticket information.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein:
the at least one second processor is further programmed to retrieve ticket information from the ticket database repeatedly during a work day; and
a time interval between any two consecutive retrievals is at most 5 minutes.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and job performance information associated with the locate activity.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and quality assessment information associated with the locate activity.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and weather information associated with the locate activity.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and traffic information associated with the locate activity.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and risk information associated with the locate activity.
11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and penalty or profitability information associated with the locate activity.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor provides inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity.
13. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
determine a service category for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
determine the service category for the locate activity at least in part by parsing the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the service category is any one of emergency, re-mark, or short notice.
16. The system of 13, wherein:
the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and
providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity based at least in part on the service category for the locate activity.
17. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
determine an underground facility type associated with the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information retrieved from the ticket database.
18. The system of 17, wherein:
the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and
providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity based at least in part on the underground facility type associated with the locate activity.
19. The system of claim 17, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
determine whether the underground facility type associated with the locate activity is a high profile facility type; and
apply a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the locate activity if it is determined that the underground facility type associated with the locate activity is a high profile facility type.
20. The system of claim 1, wherein:
the at least one second processor is further programmed to determine at least one of job performance information, quality assessment information, weather information, traffic information, risk information, penalty or profitability information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity;
the at least one first processor is further programmed to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and
providing inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity; and
the at least one second processor is further programmed to apply a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the located activity based on the at least one of the job performance information, the quality assessment information, the weather information, the traffic information, the risk information, the penalty or profitability information, and the complexity information.
21. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to present a user interface for displaying schedule information to a human dispatcher and for receiving manual adjustments from the human dispatcher.
22. The system of claim 21, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to transmit schedule information to a remote user interface for displaying the schedule information to at least one supervisor of the plurality of locate technicians.
23. The system of claim 21, wherein the at least one second processor is further programmed to:
display two or more locate activities in a Gantt chart format via the user interface;
determine a performance deadline for each of the displayed locate activities; and
apply different visual indicators to the displayed locate activities depending on the performance deadlines of the displayed locate activities.
24. The system of claim 23, wherein an alert indicator is applied to a locate activity with a missed performance deadline.
25. A method for dispatching a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the method comprising:
A) retrieving technician information from a technician database maintained on at least one first storage device, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians;
B) providing first inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the technician information;
C) retrieving ticket information from a ticket database maintained on at least one second storage device;
D) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information;
E) providing second inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information;
F) selecting, by the scheduling engine, a start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the first and second inputs;
G) allocating, by the scheduling engine, at least one locate technician to perform the locate activity; and
H) dispatching the at least one locate technician to perform the locate activity.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein retrieving ticket information comprises:
identifying new tickets that have been added to the ticket database since a previous retrieval; and
retrieving the new tickets from the ticket database.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and job performance information associated with the locate activity.
28. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and quality assessment information associated with the locate activity.
29. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and weather information associated with the locate activity.
30. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and traffic information associated with the locate activity.
31. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and risk information associated with the locate activity.
32. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and penalty or profitability information associated with the locate activity.
33. The method of claim 25, wherein E) comprises providing the second inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information, the technician information, and complexity information associated with the locate activity.
34. The method of claim 25, further comprising;
applying one or more ticket exclusion criteria to at least one new ticket to determine whether the at least one new ticket is suitable for automatic scheduling.
35. The method of claim 34, wherein:
the one or more ticket exclusion criteria comprises a geofence exclusion that defines a geographical exclusion area; and
the at least one new ticket is excluded from automatic scheduling if a ticket location associated with the at least one new ticket falls within the geographical exclusion area.
36. The method of claim 34, wherein:
the one or more ticket exclusion criteria comprises a geofence exclusion that defines a geographical exclusion area and is associated with at least one exclusion time period; and
the at least one new ticket is excluded from automatic scheduling if a ticket location associated with the at least one new ticket falls within the geographical exclusion area and a performance time window of the at least one new ticket overlaps at least partially with the at least one exclusion time period, the performance time window being determined by an earliest start time and a performance deadline associated with the at least one new ticket.
37. The method of claim 25, wherein providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises estimating an expected duration for the locate activity based at least in part on the ticket information.
38. The method of 37, wherein estimating an expected duration for the locate activity comprises:
determining a facility type to be located during the locate activity;
determining the expected duration for the locate activity based at least in part on the facility type.
39. The method of claim 25, wherein:
the scheduling engine is adapted to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric; and
providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity.
40. The method of claim 39, wherein assigning a base value to the locate activity comprises:
determining a facility type to be located during the locate activity; and
determining the base value for the locate activity based at least in part on the facility type.
41. The method of claim 40, wherein assigning a base value to the locate activity further comprises:
determining a service category associated with the locate activity; and
applying a weighting factor to the base value based at least in part on the service category.
42. The method of claim 25, further comprising:
determining at least one of job performance information, quality assessment information, weather information, traffic information, risk information, penalty or profitability information and complexity information associated with the locate activity,
wherein:
the scheduling engine is adapted to provide optimized schedules with respect to a value metric;
providing second inputs to the scheduling engine further comprises assigning a base value to the locate activity, and applying a weighting factor to the base value assigned to the located activity based on the at least one of the job performance information, the quality assessment information, the weather information, the traffic information, the risk information, the penalty or profitability information and the complexity information.
43. The method of claim 25, further comprising:
receiving at least one input instruction from a human dispatcher via a user interface; and
providing third inputs to the scheduling engine based at least in part on the at least one input instruction received from the human dispatcher.
44. The method of claim 43, wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to modify availability of a locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians.
45. The method of claim 43, wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to modify a start location of a locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians.
46. The method of claim 43, wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to allocate a selected locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians to a selected locate activity of the plurality of locate activities.
47. The method of claim 43, wherein the at least one input instruction from the human dispatcher comprises an instruction to allocate a selected locate technician of the plurality of locate technicians to a project ticket comprising two or more related locate activities.
48. The method of claim 25, further comprising transmitting schedule information generated by the scheduling engine to a remote user interface for displaying the schedule information to at least one supervisor of the plurality of locate technicians.
49. At least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method for scheduling dispatch a plurality of locate technicians to perform a plurality of locate activities, each locate activity corresponding to at least one locate ticket requesting that a presence or absence of at least one underground facility be determined within a planned dig area, the method comprising:
A) retrieving technician information from a technician database maintained on at least one first storage device, the technician information comprising shift information indicating availability of the plurality of locate technicians;
B) providing first inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the technician information;
C) retrieving ticket information from a ticket database maintained on at least one second storage device;
D) determining a performance deadline for a locate activity of the plurality of locate activities based at least in part on the ticket information; and
E) providing second inputs to a scheduling engine based at least in part on the ticket information and the technician information, comprising determining a latest start time for the locate activity based at least in part on the performance deadline for the locate activity and the shift information.