Knowledge-Based Approaches to Scheduling Problems: A Survey

Scheduling is the process of devising or designing a procedure for a particular objective, specifying the sequence or time for each item in the procedure. Qpical scheduling problems are railway time-tabling, project scheduling, production scheduling, and scheduling computer systems as in flexible manufacturing systems and multiprocessor scheduling. Further, there are a number of related problems belonging to the larger class of planning problems, such as the early stage of project management and resource allocation in a job shop. Scheduling is a rich area demanding the application of efficient methods to tackle the combinatorial explosion that results in real world applications. Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the use of knowledge-based techniques for solving scheduling problems. In this paper, we survey several existing intelligent planning and scheduling systems with the aim of providing a guide to the main AI techniques used. In view of the prevailing difference in usage of the terms planning and scheduling between AI and OR, we present a taxonomy of planning and scheduling problems. We illustrate the modeling of real world problems b m closed deterministic worlds to complex real worlds with the project scheduling example. We survey some of the more successful planning and scheduling systems, and highlight their features. Finally, we consolidate the AI approaches to knowledge representation and problem solving in the project management context. Index TernIntelligent systems, knowledge-based systems, planning, project management, scheduling.