System and method of vessel scheduling for product distribution
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system of packing a vessel by maximizing vessel utilization subject to tank capacity constraints at one or more terminals, comprising:
- a computer system comprising a processor that receives a schedule request and one or more constraints for vessel packing of one or more products in one or more vessels; and
an optimization engine tangibly embodied on the computer system comprising a processor, the optimization engine;
generates a vessel packing plan comprising one or more compartments based on the one or more constraints using a depth-first search with backtracking algorithm, the depth-first search with backtracking algorithm comprises a solution represented by a vector V=(v_1, . . . , v_n), the ith component of the vector being a product and volume assigned to the ith compartment;
constructs a partial solution with elements fixed for the first k elements of the vector where k is less than or equal to n;
constructs the set of possible candidates S for the (k+1)st position;
constructs an extension by adding the next element from S to the partial solution; and
checks if the extension yields a partial solution,when the extension yields a partial solution, the optimization engine continues to extend the partial solution as long as the extension yields a partial solution, andwhen S is empty, the optimization engine backtracks to v_k and replaces v_k with a next candidate.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system, computer-implemented method, and software for automatically planning and scheduling ocean-going vessels for oil distribution is provided. The scheduling of the vessels is based on a filtered beam search and greedy heuristic. A server can be used for receiving a schedule request and one or more constraints for scheduling one or more vessels from one or more users. An optimization engine can be used for generating a schedule based at least in part on the one or more constraints using a beam search algorithm.
-
Citations
17 Claims
-
1. A system of packing a vessel by maximizing vessel utilization subject to tank capacity constraints at one or more terminals, comprising:
-
a computer system comprising a processor that receives a schedule request and one or more constraints for vessel packing of one or more products in one or more vessels; and an optimization engine tangibly embodied on the computer system comprising a processor, the optimization engine; generates a vessel packing plan comprising one or more compartments based on the one or more constraints using a depth-first search with backtracking algorithm, the depth-first search with backtracking algorithm comprises a solution represented by a vector V=(v_1, . . . , v_n), the ith component of the vector being a product and volume assigned to the ith compartment; constructs a partial solution with elements fixed for the first k elements of the vector where k is less than or equal to n; constructs the set of possible candidates S for the (k+1)st position; constructs an extension by adding the next element from S to the partial solution; and checks if the extension yields a partial solution, when the extension yields a partial solution, the optimization engine continues to extend the partial solution as long as the extension yields a partial solution, and when S is empty, the optimization engine backtracks to v_k and replaces v_k with a next candidate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method of packing a vessel by maximizing vessel utilization subject to tank capacity constraints at one or more terminals, comprising:
-
receiving, by a computer, a schedule request and one or more constraints for vessel packing of one or more products in one or more vessels; and generating, by the computer, a vessel packing plan comprising one or more compartments based on the one or more constraints using a depth-first search with backtracking algorithm, the depth-first search with backtracking algorithm comprises a solution represented by a vector V=(v_1, . . . , v_n), the ith component of the vector being a product and volume assigned to the ith compartment; constructing, by the computer, a partial solution with elements fixed for the first k elements of the vector where k is less than or equal to n; constructing, by the computer, the set of possible candidates S for the (k+1)st position; constructing, by the computer, an extension by adding the next element from S to the partial solution; and checking, by the computer, if the extension yields a partial solution, when the extension yields a partial solution, continuing, by the computer, to extend the partial solution as long as the extension yields a partial solution, and when S is empty, backtracking, by the computer, to v_k, and replacing v_k with a next candidate. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodied with software that generates a packing plan for a vessel by maximizing vessel utilization subject to tank capacity constraints at one or more terminals, the software when executed by one or more computers is configured to:
-
receive a schedule request and one or more constraints for vessel packing of one or more products in one or more vessels; and generate a vessel packing plan comprising one or more compartments based on the one or more constraints using a depth-first search with backtracking algorithm, the depth-first search with backtracking algorithm comprises a solution represented by a vector V=(v_1, . . . , v_n), the ith component of the vector being a product and volume assigned to the ith compartment; construct a partial solution with elements fixed for the first k elements of the vector where k is less than or equal to n; construct the set of possible candidates S for the (k+1)st position; construct an extension by adding the next element from S to the partial solution; and check if the extension yields a partial solution, when the extension yields a partial solution, continue to extend the partial solution as long as the extension yields a partial solution; and when S is empty, backtrack to v_k and replaces v_k with a next candidate. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
-
Specification