Systems and methods for analyzing weather event impacts on schedule activities

{
  "publication_number": "US2018218303A1",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "A1",
  "title": "Systems and methods for analyzing weather event impacts on schedule activities",
  "abstract": "The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for forecasting weather events, and in particular, for forecasting weather-related impacts on schedules for construction projects and capital programs, or any type of project, program and/or operation where weather can influence its outcome. The disclosed systems/methods can include parsing and processing received project activity data to instantiate an activity model for each schedule activity. A machine-trained classifier can be used to predict, for each respective activity model, types of weather events that are expected to impact each schedule activity. Weather forecast data can also be parsed and/or processed to classify forecasted weather events according to multiple pre-defined types of weather events. A report can be generated specifying which schedule activities are expected to be impacted by forecasted weather events.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method for determining probable impacts of forecasted weather events on schedule activities, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more processors, project activity data; parsing the received project activity data using the one or more processors to determine one or more schedule activities; instantiating, at the one or more processors, an activity model for each of the determined one or more schedule activities, wherein each activity model comprises one or more extracted activity attributes that are determined based on the received project activity data; determining at the one or more processors, for each respective activity model of at least some of the instantiated activity models, one or more types of weather events that may impact the schedule activity corresponding to the respective activity model based on at least one of the extracted attributes for the respective activity model; receiving, at the one or more processors, weather forecast data; parsing the received weather forecast data using the one or more processors to determine one or more forecasted weather events, wherein each forecasted weather event comprises a predefined weather event data structure that defines a weather event type of a plurality of predefined weather event types; processing each activity model to determine which, if any, activity models correspond to a schedule activity that may be impacted by a forecasted weather event; and generating, using the one or more processors, a report specifying which of the one or more schedule activities may be impacted by any of the one or more forecasted weather events. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the project activity data is formatted according to a file format. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the project activity data is received via a database-to-database connection and is formatted according to a database format. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather forecast data comprises text alerts issued by at least one weather forecast authority, wherein the text alerts have not been automatically generated by a computer but have been at least partially drafted by a human operator. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the weather forecast data comprises time-series weather forecast data received from at least one of a weather forecast authority and a weather sensor. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more types of weather events that may impact the schedule activity corresponding to the respective activity model are determined using a multi-label classifier that has been trained according to a machine learning algorithm. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the multi-label classifier is a support vector machine (SVM) classifier that defines a decision hyperplane that differentiates between sets of weather event types that may impact a particular schedule activity and sets of weather event types that are not expected to impact the particular schedule activity. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the parsing of the received weather forecast data to determine one or more forecasted weather events is accomplished using a weather event classifier that has been trained according to a machine learning algorithm. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the received project activity data is associated with a construction project, and wherein each schedule activity is a construction-related activity. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated report is delivered via at least one of an email, a text message, a laptop or desktop push notification system, a mobile push notification system, an audible notification system, a visual notification system, and a watch push notification system. 11. A system for determining probable impacts of forecasted weather events on schedule activities, the system comprising: one or more communications interfaces configured to receive project activity data and weather forecast data; and one or more processors configured to: parse the received project activity data to determine one or more schedule activities, instantiate an activity model for each of the determined one or more schedule activities, wherein each activity model comprises one or more extracted activity attributes that are determined based on the received project activity data, determine, for each respective activity model of at least some of the instantiated activity models, one or more types of weather events that may impact the schedule activity corresponding to the respective activity model based on at least one of the extracted attributes for the respective activity model, parse the weather forecast data to determine one or more forecasted weather events, wherein each forecasted weather event comprises a predefined weather event data structure that defines a weather event type of a plurality of predefined weather event types, process each activity model to determine which, if any, activity models correspond to a schedule activity that may be impacted by a forecasted weather event, and generate a report specifying which of the one or more schedule activities may be impacted by any of the one or more forecasted weather events. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the project activity data is formatted according to a file format. 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the project activity data is received via a database-to-database connection and is formatted according to a database format. 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the weather forecast data comprises text alerts issued by at least one weather forecast authority, wherein the text alerts have not been automatically generated by a computer but have been at least partially drafted by a human operator. 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the weather forecast data comprises time-series weather forecast data received from at least one of a weather forecast authority and a weather sensor. 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine, for each respective activity model of at least some of the instantiated activity models, one or more types of weather events that may impact the schedule activity corresponding to the respective activity model using a multi-label classifier that has been trained according to a machine learning algorithm. 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the multi-label classifier is a support vector machine (SVM) classifier that defines a decision hyperplane that differentiates between sets of weather event types that may impact a particular schedule activity and sets of weather events that are not expected to impact the particular schedule activity. 18. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to parse the received weather forecast data to determine one or more forecasted weather events using a weather event classifier that has been trained according to a machine learning algorithm. 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the received project activity data is associated with a construction project, and wherein each schedule activity is a construction-related activity. 20. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more processors are configured to deliver the generated report via at least one of an email, a text message, a laptop or desktop push notification system, a mobile push notification system, an audible notification system, a visual notification system, and a watch push notification system."
  ],
  "cpc": [
    "G06Q 10/06312",
    "G01W 1/10",
    "G06F 15/18",
    "G06F 17/2715",
    "G06F 18/2411",
    "G06F 40/216",
    "G06F 40/279",
    "G06F 40/30",
    "G06K 9/6269",
    "G06N 20/00",
    "G06N 20/10",
    "G06V 10/764",
    "G06V 40/20"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "WEATHER BUILD INC"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2018-02-01",
  "publication_date": "2018-08-02",
  "priority_date": "2017-02-01",
  "application_number": "US-201815886193-A",
  "family_id": "62980583",
  "citations": [
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    "US2008004794A1",
    "US2011231812A1",
    "US2013036080A1",
    "US2017316385A1",
    "US2018130146A1"
  ]
}