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International Conference on Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research

CPAIOR 2015: Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming pp 437–453Cite as

Failure-Directed Search for Constraint-Based Scheduling

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9075))

Abstract

This paper presents a new constraint programming search algorithm that is designed for a broad class of scheduling problems. Failure-directed Search (FDS) assumes that there is no (better) solution or that such a solution is very hard to find. Therefore, instead of looking for solution(s), it focuses on a systematic exploration of the search space, first eliminating assignments that are most likely to fail. It is a “plan B” strategy that is used once a less systematic “plan A” strategy – here, Large Neighborhood Search (LNS) – is not able to improve current solution any more. LNS and FDS form the basis of the automatic search for scheduling problems in CP Optimizer, part of IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio.

FDS and LNS+FDS (the default search in CP Optimizer) are tested on a range of scheduling benchmarks: Job Shop, Job Shop with Operators, Flexible Job Shop, RCPSP, RCPSP/max, Multi-mode RCPSP and Multi-mode RCPSP/max. Results show that the proposed search algorithm often improves best-known lower and upper bounds and closes many open instances.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM, V Parku 2294/4, 148 00, Praha 4 - Chodov, Czech Republic

    Petr Vilím

  2. IBM, 9 rue de Verdun, 94253, Gentilly Cedex, France

    Philippe Laborie

  3. IBM, Les Taissounieres HB2, 2681 Route des Dolines, 06560, Valbonne, France

    Paul Shaw

Authors
  1. Petr Vilím
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  2. Philippe Laborie
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  3. Paul Shaw
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petr Vilím .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

    Laurent Michel

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Vilím, P., Laborie, P., Shaw, P. (2015). Failure-Directed Search for Constraint-Based Scheduling. In: Michel, L. (eds) Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming. CPAIOR 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9075. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18008-3_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18008-3_30

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-18007-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-18008-3

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