1,493 research outputs found
An Integer Linear Programming Solution to the Telescope Network Scheduling Problem
Telescope networks are gaining traction due to their promise of higher
resource utilization than single telescopes and as enablers of novel
astronomical observation modes. However, as telescope network sizes increase,
the possibility of scheduling them completely or even semi-manually disappears.
In an earlier paper, a step towards software telescope scheduling was made with
the specification of the Reservation formalism, through the use of which
astronomers can express their complex observation needs and preferences. In
this paper we build on that work. We present a solution to the discretized
version of the problem of scheduling a telescope network. We derive a solvable
integer linear programming (ILP) model based on the Reservation formalism. We
show computational results verifying its correctness, and confirm that our
Gurobi-based implementation can address problems of realistic size. Finally, we
extend the ILP model to also handle the novel observation requests that can be
specified using the more advanced Compound Reservation formalism.Comment: Accepted for publication in the refereed conference proceedings of
the International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems
(ICORES 2015
The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler
We present a novel algorithm for scheduling the observations of time-domain
imaging surveys. Our Integer Linear Programming approach optimizes an observing
plan for an entire night by assigning targets to temporal blocks, enabling
strict control of the number of exposures obtained per field and minimizing
filter changes. A subsequent optimization step minimizes slew times between
each observation. Our optimization metric self-consistently weights
contributions from time-varying airmass, seeing, and sky brightness to maximize
the transient discovery rate. We describe the implementation of this algorithm
on the surveys of the Zwicky Transient Facility and present its on-sky
performance.Comment: Published in PASP Focus Issue on the Zwicky Transient Facility
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/ab0c2a). 13 Pages, 11 Figure
Combinatorial optimization applied to VLBI scheduling
Due to the advent of powerful solvers, today linear programming has seen many applications in production and routing. In this publication, we present mixed-integer linear programming as applied to scheduling geodetic very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations. The approach uses combinatorial optimization and formulates the scheduling task as a mixed-integer linear program. Within this new method, the schedule is considered as an entity containing all possible observations of an observing session at the same time, leading to a global optimum. In our example, the optimum is found by maximizing the sky coverage score. The sky coverage score is computed by a hierarchical partitioning of the local sky above each telescope into a number of cells. Each cell including at least one observation adds a certain gain to the score. The method is computationally expensive and this publication may be ahead of its time for large networks and large numbers of VLBI observations. However, considering that developments of solvers for combinatorial optimization are progressing rapidly and that computers increase in performance, the usefulness of this approach may come up again in some distant future. Nevertheless, readers may be prompted to look into these optimization methods already today seeing that they are available also in the geodetic literature. The validity of the concept and the applicability of the logic are demonstrated by evaluating test schedules for five 1-h, single-baseline Intensive VLBI sessions. Compared to schedules that were produced with the scheduling software sked, the number of observations per session is increased on average by three observations and the simulated precision of UT1-UTC is improved in four out of five cases (6μs average improvement in quadrature). Moreover, a simplified and thus much faster version of the mixed-integer linear program has been developed for modern VLBI Global Observing System telescopes
A Neural Network Model for Scheduling Problems
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been successfully applied to solve a variety of problems. This paper proposes a
new neural network approach to solve the single machine mean tardiness scheduling problem and the minimum makespan
job shop schedUling problem. The proposed network combines the characteristics of neural networks and algorithmic
approaches. The performance of the network is compared with the existing scheduling algorithms under various experimental
conditions. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided in the paper
Working Notes from the 1992 AAAI Spring Symposium on Practical Approaches to Scheduling and Planning
The symposium presented issues involved in the development of scheduling systems that can deal with resource and time limitations. To qualify, a system must be implemented and tested to some degree on non-trivial problems (ideally, on real-world problems). However, a system need not be fully deployed to qualify. Systems that schedule actions in terms of metric time constraints typically represent and reason about an external numeric clock or calendar and can be contrasted with those systems that represent time purely symbolically. The following topics are discussed: integrating planning and scheduling; integrating symbolic goals and numerical utilities; managing uncertainty; incremental rescheduling; managing limited computation time; anytime scheduling and planning algorithms, systems; dependency analysis and schedule reuse; management of schedule and plan execution; and incorporation of discrete event techniques
- …