AIAI has developed a vehicle and driver scheduler
for a Scottish supplier of oil and bitumen. The system provides
a comprehensive computer-based scheduling facility to achieve
consistently high quality distribution plans which minimise distribution
costs and satisfy customer delivery requirements whilst adhering
to working regulations, physical compatibility restrictions and
operating preferences. Benefits are achieved through the provision
of: (I) a fully auditable trace of adherence to working regulations,
quality and customer delivery targets; (II) a facility to assess
the costs of alternative working practices and; (III) a service
which produces consistent near-optimal solutions.
Optimum-AIV
is a knowledge-based system for the planning
and scheduling of activities for spacecraft assembly, integration
and verification (AIV) at the European Space Agency (ESA). The
system supports the entire AIV life cycle, i.e., not only scheduling
of the activities but also monitoring of plan execution and the
plan repair phases. The system allows scheduling of activities
to be performed either manually or automatically using resource
levelling. The system is integrated with the existing Artemis
project management system in use within ESA. Optimum-AIV is now
being operationally applied to the strategic planning of the production
of ESA's Ariane-IV launcher equipment bays. This activity frequently
requires the plans to be updated due to non-availability of equipment,
test failures, etc
AIAI has undertaken a programme on Research and
Development in the area of manufacturing scheduling for Hitachi.
This programme involved three separate projects concerned with
the construction of predictive and reactive scheduling systems.
The project developed a micro-opportunistic job-shop scheduling
system tested on a large dataset, derived from real factory data,
involving a wide range of production constraints.
This work led to the development of new resource management algorithms
which have been incorporated into a commercial planning and scheduling
tool. AIAI has supported the development of a scheduling and control
tool for ESEC, a leading supplier of an automated line for semi-conductor
backend assembly. That work involved both development and design
of: a constraint-based scheduler for a single line was developed,
and a design for scheduling control of multiple lines
At the heart of AIAI 's planning and scheduling work
has been the modelling and management of constraints. AIAI has
developed a strong technical focus on constraint solving. Work
includes:
Development of a prototype constraint solver,
before commercial tools were available.
Work with British Aerospace on EUMETSAT, using
a constraint management tool to schedule.
Activities on weather satellites.
Work with the Defence Research Agency Satellite
Communication Division to improve the network and access planning
capability of UK military satellite communications.
Training to industry on "Advanced Scheduling
Methods" & "Reasoning with Constraints".
Evaluation of commercially available constraint
satisfaction problem solving tools.
