Method and system for timetabling using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents
First Claim
1. A timetabling system based on an improved an colony optimization using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agent, wherein the timetabling system can provide an optimal timetable for a timetable problem requiring a plurality of activities be scheduled within a planning period with a plurality of time slots of which each time slot has a start time, said timetabling system comprising:
- an electronic device having a memory capacity that contains a storage medium,wherein the storage medium stores the information of the timetable problem including the plurality of activities, the time slots within the planning period, and the plurality of sets of resources; and
wherein the electronic device is embedded with a timetabling module that generates optimal timetable using the information inputted from a user;
wherein the timetabling module comprises a source graph constructor for constructing the source graph for the timetable problem;
wherein the source graph consists of a plurality of activity nodes representing the activities, a plurality of resource nodes representing the resources, and a plurality of time nodes representing the time slots that are associated with the plurality of resource nodes, thereby the plurality of resource nodes and the time nodes form a multi-resource-time-space, i.e., the source graph; and
wherein the timetabling module further comprises a timetable solution searching engine performing timetable solution searching cycles on the source graph based upon local searching heuristic rules and global pheromone updating rules by pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents to thereby generate an optimal timetable;
wherein said electronic device provides said generated optimal timetable for use by the user;
said generated optimal timetable having each activity being scheduled to one or more time slots within the planning period and being allocated with all required resources.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a timetabling system based on an improved ant colony optimization using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents. The timetabling system can provide an optimal timetable solution for a timetable problem that consists of a plurality of activities, each activity being scheduled to a start time within a planning period and being allocated all required resources from a plurality of sets of resources. In one aspect of the present invention, the timetabling system comprises an electronic device having a memory capacity that contains a storage medium, and a timetabling module being implemented in the electronic device. The present invention also provides a timetabling method based on an improved ant colony optimization by using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents to obtain an optimal timetable solution for a timetable problem that consists of a plurality of activities, each activity being scheduled into a start time within a planning period and being allocated all required resources from a plurality of sets of resources.
-
Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A timetabling system based on an improved an colony optimization using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agent, wherein the timetabling system can provide an optimal timetable for a timetable problem requiring a plurality of activities be scheduled within a planning period with a plurality of time slots of which each time slot has a start time, said timetabling system comprising:
-
an electronic device having a memory capacity that contains a storage medium, wherein the storage medium stores the information of the timetable problem including the plurality of activities, the time slots within the planning period, and the plurality of sets of resources; and wherein the electronic device is embedded with a timetabling module that generates optimal timetable using the information inputted from a user; wherein the timetabling module comprises a source graph constructor for constructing the source graph for the timetable problem;
wherein the source graph consists of a plurality of activity nodes representing the activities, a plurality of resource nodes representing the resources, and a plurality of time nodes representing the time slots that are associated with the plurality of resource nodes, thereby the plurality of resource nodes and the time nodes form a multi-resource-time-space, i.e., the source graph; andwherein the timetabling module further comprises a timetable solution searching engine performing timetable solution searching cycles on the source graph based upon local searching heuristic rules and global pheromone updating rules by pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents to thereby generate an optimal timetable; wherein said electronic device provides said generated optimal timetable for use by the user;
said generated optimal timetable having each activity being scheduled to one or more time slots within the planning period and being allocated with all required resources. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A timetabling method based on an improved ant colony optimisation by using pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents to obtain an optimal timetable for a timetable problem, wherein the timetable problem requires that a plurality of activities be scheduled within a planning period with a plurality of time slots of which each time slot has a start time, said timetabling method comprising:
-
constructing a source graph having a plurality of activity nodes representing the activities, a plurality of resource nodes representing the resources, and a plurality of time nodes representing the time slots that are associated with the plurality of resource nodes, thereby the plurality of resource nodes and the time nodes form a multi-resource-time-space, i.e., the source graph; initializing one or more searching parameters for one or more pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents; performing timetable solution searching cycles on said source graph based upon local searching heuristic rules and global pheromone updating rules by the pheromone and hybrid heuristics based cooperating agents to determine generate the optimal timetable; and providing said generated optimal timetable to the user;
said generated optimal timetable having each activity being scheduled to one or more time slots within the planning period and be allocated with all required resources. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
Specification