Abstract
Timetabling problems can be extremely time-consuming when they are solved without any kind of computer assistance. Computer assistance can vary from some intuitive graphical interface to an automated timetabler. Although a good graphical interface may be suitable for small problems, when we consider medium-size or large-size problems only an automated tool can be useful. In this paper we introduce a new paradigm for automated timetabling based on models and techniques developed for scheduling. Scheduling concepts such as activity and resource are translated to the timetabling domain and a general Bardadym's scheduling method, named micro-opportunistic approach, is applied in this novel domain. This approach constructs schedules incrementally and always focus its attention on the most critical decisions, to avoid backtracking. This framework is constraint-based and object-oriented. These two methods allows the easy representation of the timetabling problem and the handling of new timetabling constraints, either “hard” (should be satisfied) or “soft” (should preferably be satisfied).
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Allen, J.: “Maintaining Knowledge about Temporal Intervals”, in Communications of the ACM 26 (11), 1983.
Bardadym, V.: “Computer-Aided School and University Timetabling: The New Wave”,in Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Burke E. Ross P. (Eds), Springer Verlag, 1996.
Evertsz, R.: “The Development of SYLLABUS — An Interactive Constraint-Based Scheduler for Schools and Colleges”,in Proceedings of Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence, pp. 39–51, AAAI Press, CA, 1991.
Feldman, R., Golumbic, M.: “Optimisation algorithms for student scheduling via constraint satisfability” in Computer Journal 33, pp: 356–364. 1990.
Fox, M., Sadeh, N., Baykan, C.: “Constrained Heuristic Search”,in Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 309–316. Morgan Kaufmann Pub. Inc.. 1989.
Fox, M., Sadeh, N: “Why Is Scheduling Difficult? A CSP Perspective”.in Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. pp. 734–767. John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1990.
Fox, M., Sycara, K.: “The CORTES Project: A Unified Framework for Planning, Scheduling and Control”,Darpa Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Planning, Scheduling and Control, pp. 412–421, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. Inc., San Mateo, CA, 1990.
Hansson, O., Mayer A.: “DTS: A Decision-Theoretic Scheduler for Space Telescope Applications”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 371–388, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Henz, M., Würtz, J.: “Using Oz for College Timetabling”,in Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Burke E, Ross P. (Eds), Springer Verlag, 1996.
Johnston, M., Miller G.: “SPIKE: Intelligent Scheduling of Hubble Space Telescope Observations”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 391–422, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Johnston, M., Minton S.: “Analyzing a Heuristic Strategy for Constraint-Satisfaction and Scheduling”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 257–289, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Kumar, V.: “Algorithms for Constraint-Satisfaction Problems: A Survey”,in AI Magazine, Volume 13, Number 1, 1992.
Le Pape, C.: “Implementation of Resource Constraints in Ilog Schedule: A Library for the Development of Constraint-Based Scheduling Systems”,in Intelligent Systems Engineering, Volume 3, pp. 55–66, 1994.
Le Pape, C.: “Scheduling as Intelligent Control of Decision-Making and Constraint Propagation”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 67–98, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Mackworth, A.: “Constraint Satisfaction”,in Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, Volume 1, S. C. Shapiro (ed.), pp. 205–211, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1987.
Mamede, N., Soares, P.: “University Automated Timetabling”,in Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces, Pula, Croatia, pp 11–19, 1996.
Miyashita, K. Sycara, K.: “Adaptive Case-based Control of Schedule Revision”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 291–308, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Muscettola, N.: “HSTS: Integrating Planning and Scheduling” In Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 169–212, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Ow, P., Smith, S.: “Viewing Scheduling as an Opportunistic Problem-Solving Process”,in Annals of Operations Research, Volume 12, pp. 85–108, 1988.
Rich, E.: “Artificial Intelligence”,McGraw-Hill, 1983.
Rossi, F., Petrie, C., Dhar, V.: On the Equivalence of Constraint-Satisfaction Problems, Technical Report ACT-AI-222-89, MCC corp., Austin. Texas, 1989.
Sadeh, N.: “Micro-Opportunistic Scheduling: The Micro-Boss Factory Scheduler”,in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 99–135, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc.. San Francisco, CA, 1994.
“Ilog Scheduler User Manual Version 2.2”,Ilog, 1996.
Shapiro L. and Haralick R. “Structural descriptions and inexact matching”,IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intelligence 3, pp: 304–519, 1981.
Soares, P., Mamede, N.: “Micro-Opportunistic Timetabling”. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, Toronto, Ontário, Canada (1997).
“Ilog Solver User Manual Version 3.2”,Ilog, 1996.
Sousa, S.: “Escalamento baseado em restrições espaciais e temporais”, MSc Thesis, IST, Lisbon, 1997.
Yoshikawa, M., Kaneko, K., Nomura, Y., Watanabe, M.: “A Constraint, Based Approach to High-School Timetabling Problems: A Case Study”,in Proceedings of the 12th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Volume 2, pp. 111–116, AAAI Press, Seattle, 1994.
Zweben, M., Daun, B., Davis. E., Deale, M.: “Scheduling and Rescheduling with Iterative Repair”, in Intelligent Scheduling, pp. 241–253. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Soares, P., Mamede, N.J. (1997). Timetabling using demand profiles. In: Coasta, E., Cardoso, A. (eds) Progress in Artificial Intelligence. EPIA 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1323. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0023914
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0023914
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63586-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69605-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive