Cell formation deals with grouping of machines and parts in manufacturing systems according to their compatibility. Manufacturing processes are surrounded with an abundance of complex constraints which should be consi...
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Cell formation deals with grouping of machines and parts in manufacturing systems according to their compatibility. Manufacturing processes are surrounded with an abundance of complex constraints which should be considered carefully and represented clearly for obtaining high efficiency and productivity. constraint programming is a new approach to combinatorial optimization and provides a rich language to represent complex constraints easily. However, the cell formation problems are well suited to be solved by constraint programming approach since the problem has many constraints such as part-machine requirements, availabilities in the system in terms of capacity, machine and worker abilities. In this study, the cell formation problem is modeled using machine, part processing and worker flexibilities via resource element-based representation. Resource elements define the processing requirements of parts and processing capabilities of machines and workers, which are resource-independent capability units. A total of 12 case problems are generated, and different search phases of constraint programming are defined for the solution procedure. The cell formation problem is modeled in both constraint programming and integer programming, and a comparative analysis of constraint programming and integer programming model solutions is done. The results indicate that both the models are effective and efficient in the solution of the cell formation problem.
In this article, we focus on the transient inter-production scheduling problem between two cyclic productions in the framework of flexible manufacturing systems. This problem is first formulated as a reachability prob...
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In this article, we focus on the transient inter-production scheduling problem between two cyclic productions in the framework of flexible manufacturing systems. This problem is first formulated as a reachability problem in timed Petri nets (TPN), then solved using a methodology based on constraint programming. Our work is based on the controlled executions proposed by Chretienne to model the sequence of transition firing dates. Our methodology is based on a preliminary resolution of the state equation between initial and final states in the underlying non-TPN. Then, we choose a duration T-max corresponding to the maximal duration time of the scheduling. For each solution S of the state equation, we build a controlled execution from the sequence of firings in S. After the propagation of firing date constraints and reachability constraints in the TPN, we use constraint programming to enumerate the set of feasible controlled executions.
In the container terminals of seaports, the container handling system consists of a variety of container handling machines such as quay cranes, internal yard trucks, and yard cranes. This study applies a holistic appr...
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In the container terminals of seaports, the container handling system consists of a variety of container handling machines such as quay cranes, internal yard trucks, and yard cranes. This study applies a holistic approach to the integrated scheduling of these machines for the container handling operations of a single vessel. We formulate this special hybrid flow shop scheduling problem through both mixed integer programming (MIP) and constraint programming (CP) techniques. Then we develop an easily-implemented approach that combines the strengths of MIP and CP. First, the MIP model, which only considers quay crane scheduling, is solved by an MIP solver, and a quay crane allocation plan is retrieved from the MIP solution. Then, this quay crane allocation plan is fed to the CP model, warm-starting the branch-and-prune algorithm built in a CP optimizer. Our numerical experiments reveal that this hybrid MIP/CP approach can solve the large-sized instances with up to 10 00 containers, 6 quay cranes, 36 yard trucks, and 15 yard cranes to optimality with a gap of less than 3.31%, within a solution time of 2 minutes. If we increase the solution time to 5 minutes, this hybrid approach solves larger instances with up to 1400 containers to optimality with a gap of less than 1.41%. The state-of-the-art dedicated algorithms reported in the literature (which address an easier version of the same problem by ignoring non-crossing constraints and safety margins between quay cranes) are only able to find solutions for real-life instances with up to 500 containers within the solution time of 2930 or 5221 seconds, leaving a 4% or an unknown optimality gap. Thus, this study improves the solution of this integrated scheduling problem in terms of the instance size, solution efficiency, and solution optimality. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
In this article, we propose novel strategies for the efficient determination of multiple solutions for a single objective, as well as globally optimal pareto fronts for multiobjective, optimization problems using Cons...
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In this article, we propose novel strategies for the efficient determination of multiple solutions for a single objective, as well as globally optimal pareto fronts for multiobjective, optimization problems using constraint programming (CP). In particular, we propose strategies to determine, (i) all the multiple (globally) optimal solutions of a single objective optimization problem, (ii) K-best feasible solutions of a single objective optimization problem, and (iii) globally optimal pareto fronts (including non-convex pareto fronts) along with their multiple realizations for multiobjective optimization problems. It is shown here that the proposed strategy for determining K-best feasible solutions can be tuned as per the requirement of the user to determine either K-best distinct or nondistinct solutions. Similarly, the strategy for determining globally optimal pareto fronts can also be modified as per the requirement of the user to determine either only the distinct set of pareto points or determine the pareto points along with all their multiple realizations. All the proposed techniques involve appropriately modifying the search techniques and are shown to be computationally efficient in terms of not requiring successive re-solving of the problem to obtain the required solutions. This work therefore convincingly addresses the issue of efficiently determining globally optimal pareto fronts;in addition, it also guarantees the determination of all the possible realizations associated with each pareto point. The uncovering of such solutions can greatly aid the designer in making informed decisions. The proposed approaches are demonstrated via two case studies, which are nonlinear, combinatorial optimization problems, taken from the area of sensor network design. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 56: 387-404, 2010
Assessment of the correctness of software models is a key issue to ensure the quality of the final application. To this end, this paper presents an automatic method for the verification of UML class diagrams extended ...
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Assessment of the correctness of software models is a key issue to ensure the quality of the final application. To this end, this paper presents an automatic method for the verification of UML class diagrams extended with OCL constraints. Our method checks compliance of the diagram with respect to several correctness properties including weak and strong satisfiability or absence of constraint redundancies among others. The method works by translating the UML/OCL model into a constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) that is evaluated using state-of-the-art constraint solvers to determine the correctness of the initial model. Our approach is particularly relevant to current MDA and MOD methods where software models are the primary artifacts of the development process and the basis for the (semi-)automatic code-generation of the final application. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
We give an approximate and often extremely fast method of building a particular kind of portfolio in finance, here called a portfolio design (PD), with applications in the credit derivatives market, for example when d...
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We give an approximate and often extremely fast method of building a particular kind of portfolio in finance, here called a portfolio design (PD), with applications in the credit derivatives market, for example when designing collateralised debt obligations squared (CDO2) transactions. A PD generalises a balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) and is usually harder to build. Worse, typical financial PDs are an order of magnitude larger than the largest BIBDs built so far by constraint programs, and in practice an optimisation version of the problem of building PDs has to be solved. Our method is based on embedding small designs, whose determination is itself a constraint satisfaction problem, into the original large design. Together with the detection of when a PD might be a BIBD, symmetry breaking, extended reuse of previously built PDs, and admissibility checking during search, the performance of the method becomes good enough for designing (near-)optimal CDO2 transactions, with sizes common in the credit derivatives market, within minutes. For example, we optimally build a typical financial PD, which has over 10(746) symmetries, in just a few minutes. The high quality of our approximate designs can be assessed by comparison with a lower bound on the optimum. Our designs sufficiently improve the currently best ones so as often to make the difference between having and not having a feasible CDO2 transaction due to investor and rating-agency constraints.
This paper studies the problem of scheduling machines in the photolithography area of a semiconductor manufacturing facility. The scheduling problem is characterized as an unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem...
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This paper studies the problem of scheduling machines in the photolithography area of a semiconductor manufacturing facility. The scheduling problem is characterized as an unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with machine eligibilities, sequence- and machine-dependent setup times, auxiliary resources and transfer times for the auxiliary resources. Each job requires two auxiliary resources: a reticle and a pod. Reticles are handled in pods and a pod contains multiple reticles. Both reticles and pods are used on multiple machines and a transfer time is required if transferred from one machine to another. A novel constraint programming (CP) approach is proposed and is benchmarked against a mixed-integer programming (MIP) method. The results of the study, consisting of a real-world case study at a global semiconductor manufacturer, demonstrate that the CP approach significantly outperforms the MIP method and produces high-quality solutions for multiple real-world instances, although optimality cannot be guaranteed.
Purpose - The mine sequencing problem is NP-hard. Therefore, simplifying it is necessary. One way to do this is to employ clusters as input instead of individual blocks. The mining cut clustering problem has been litt...
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Purpose - The mine sequencing problem is NP-hard. Therefore, simplifying it is necessary. One way to do this is to employ clusters as input instead of individual blocks. The mining cut clustering problem has been little addressed in the literature, and the solutions used are almost always heuristic. We solve the mining cut clustering problem, which is NP-hard, through single- and multi-objective optimization, finding results that are local optima in acceptable computational time. Design/methodology/approach - We first elaborate an ILP-based model to address the mining cut clustering problem. We employ a mono-objective approach and two multi-objective approaches, solving all these models by constraint programming. To choose the best solutions generated by multi-objective approaches, we employ two multi-criteria decision analysis approaches, considering different weight configurations. We developed a case study using real data. Findings - We verified that the approaches based on multi-objective optimization performed better than the mono-objective approach for the economic return criterion. The weighted-sum multi-objective approach presented the best results considering all objective functions used. Once viable solutions were obtained through multi-objective optimization, multi-criteria decision analysis approaches almost always selected the same solution. We obtained solutions that are local optima in acceptable computational time. Research limitations/implications This study solves an instance with 80 blocks. Consequently, it is aimed at short-term mine planning. The methodology has not yet been evaluated in large instances related to medium- and long-term mine planning. Originality/value - This is the first time that multi-objective optimization has been employed to solve the mining cut custering problem. Even other problems related to mine planning were, at most, solved by goal programming, so that multi-objective optimization is a knowledge that is not widespread
In recent years, the integration of techniques from Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research has shown to improve the solutions of complex and large scale combinatorial optimization problems, in terms of effici...
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In recent years, the integration of techniques from Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research has shown to improve the solutions of complex and large scale combinatorial optimization problems, in terms of efficiency, scalability and optimality. In this context, constraint programming is an emerging discipline situated at the confluence of the two fields that has been recognized as a suitable environment for achieving such an integration. This paper briefly presents the integration directions explored in the literature, and provides some pointers to relevant work in these directions.
Bad construction of modeled care pathways can lead to satisfiability problems during the pathway execution. These problems can ultimately result in medical errors and need to be checked as formally as possible. Theref...
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Bad construction of modeled care pathways can lead to satisfiability problems during the pathway execution. These problems can ultimately result in medical errors and need to be checked as formally as possible. Therefore, this study proposes a set of algorithms using a free open-source library dedicated to constraint programming allied with a DSL to encode and verify care pathways, checking four possible problems: states in deadlock, non-determinism, inaccessible steps and transitions with logically equivalent guard conditions. We then test our algorithms in 84 real care pathways used both in hospitals and surgeries. Using our algorithms, we were able to find 200 problems taking less than 1 second to complete the verification on most pathways.
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