An efficient metaheuristic for integrated scheduling and staffing IT projects based on a generalized minimum cost flow network

Scheduling IT projects and assigning the project work to human resources are an important and common tasks in almost any IT service company. It is particularly complex because human resources usually have multiple skills. Up to now only little work has considered IT‐specific properties of the project structure and human resources. In this article, we present an optimization model that simultaneously schedules the activities of multiple IT projects with serial network structures and assigns the project work to multiskilled internal and external human resources with different efficiencies. The goal is to minimize costs. We introduce a metaheuristic that decomposes the problem into a binary scheduling problem and a continuous staffing problem where the latter is solved efficiently by exploiting its underlying network structure. For comparison, we solve the mixed–binary linear program with a state–of–the–art commercial solver. The impacts of problem parameters on computation time and solution gaps between the metaheuristic and the solver are assessed in an experimental study. Our results show that the metaheuristic provides very favorable results in considerable less time than the solver for midsize problems. For larger problems, it shows a similar performance while the solver fails to return feasible solutions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 59: 111–127, 2012     

Averaging frameworks for simulation optimization with applications to simulated annealing

We present two frameworks for designing random search methods for discrete simulation optimization. One of our frameworks is very broad (in that it includes many random search methods), whereas the other one considers a special class of random search methods called point‐based methods, that move iteratively between points within the feasible region. Our frameworks involve averaging, in that all decisions that require estimates of the objective function values at various feasible solutions are based on the averages of all observations collected at these solutions so far. Also, the methods are adaptive in that they can use information gathered in previous iterations to decide how simulation effort is expended in the current iteration. We show that the methods within our frameworks are almost surely globally convergent under mild conditions. Thus, the generality of our frameworks and associated convergence guarantees makes the frameworks useful to algorithm developers wishing to design efficient and rigorous procedures for simulation optimization. We also present two variants of the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and provide their convergence analysis as example application of our point‐based framework. Finally, we provide numerical results that demonstrate the empirical effectiveness of averaging and adaptivity in the context of SA. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Models and algorithms for shuffling problems in steel plants

In this article, we study item shuffling (IS) problems arising in the logistics system of steel production. An IS problem here is to optimize shuffling operations needed in retrieving a sequence of steel items from a warehouse served by a crane. There are two types of such problems, plate shuffling problems (PSP) and coil shuffling problems (CSP), considering the item shapes. The PSP is modeled as a container storage location assignment problem. For CSP, a novel linear integer programming model is formulated considering the practical stacking and shuffling features. Several valid inequalities are constructed to accelerate the solving of the models. Some properties of optimal solutions of PSP and CSP are also derived. Because of the strong NP‐hardness of the problems, we consider some special cases of them and propose polynomial time algorithms to obtain optimal solutions for these cases. A greedy heuristic is proposed to solve the general problems and its worst‐case performances on both PSP and CSP are analyzed. A tabu search (TS) method with a tabu list of variable length is proposed to further improve the heuristic solutions. Without considering the crane traveling distance, we then construct a rolling variable horizon heuristic for the problems. Numerical experiments show that the proposed heuristic algorithms and the TS method are effective. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

Generalized orienteering problem with resource dependent rewards

We introduce a generalized orienteering problem (OP) where, as usual, a vehicle is routed from a prescribed start node, through a directed network, to a prescribed destination node, collecting rewards at each node visited, to maximize the total reward along the path. In our generalization, transit on arcs in the network and reward collection at nodes both consume a variable amount of the same limited resource. We exploit this resource trade‐off through a specialized branch‐and‐bound algorithm that relies on partial path relaxation problems that often yield tight bounds and lead to substantial pruning in the enumeration tree. We present the smuggler search problem (SSP) as an important real‐world application of our generalized OP. Numerical results show that our algorithm applied to the SSP outperforms standard mixed‐integer nonlinear programming solvers for moderate to large problem instances. We demonstrate model enhancements that allow practitioners to represent realistic search planning scenarios by accounting for multiple heterogeneous searchers and complex smuggler motion. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

UUV编队协同搜索静止目标的准最优方法

考虑到操作的简单性且实际执行搜索任务时搜索力不是无限可分,将连续空间的搜索问题转换为离散空间的最优搜索问题。通过划分网格,将连续的目标位置分布离散化。根据最优搜索理论,提出了单个无人水下航行器的准最优随机搜索方法,较好地逼近理论最优值。并以此为基础,分析了无人水下航行器编队的3种协同搜索方法:集中最优搜索、分散最大概率搜索和准最优搜索。最后通过实例仿真,得出了编队准最优搜索策略的有效性、优越性和可操作性。此方法将对无人水下航行器编队的战法研究具有参考借鉴意义。     

基于搜索论的远程反舰导弹搜捕概率建模方法

针对传统捕捉概率模型难以满足远程反舰导弹机动搜捕概率建模计算的问题,提出利用搜索论进行导弹机动搜捕概率计算的建模方法。该方法根据目标机动规律建立其分布概率密度函数,并依据末制导雷达发现目标概率的"倒四次方律"及弹目相对运动轨迹,构建其探测函数,通过求取两者之积的积分实现搜捕概率计算。计算结果显示:若远程反舰导弹不采取机动搜捕策略,目标指示误差增加1km时搜捕概率降低0.47,目标速度增加10节时搜捕概率降低0.3,末制导雷达搜索半径减小50%时搜捕概率降低0.3;若采取平行搜捕策略,上述因素对其影响大幅下降。可见,该方法综合考虑了目标机动规律、传感器探测规律、导弹搜捕策略,可实现远程反舰导弹机动搜捕概率的解算。     

Integrated scheduling of loading and transportation with tractors and semitrailers separated

Motivated by some practical applications, we study a new integrated loading and transportation scheduling problem. Given a set of jobs, a single crane is available to load jobs, one by one, onto semitrailers with a given capacity. Loaded semitrailers are assigned to tractors for transportation tasks. Subject to limited resources (crane, semitrailers, and tractors), the problem is to determine (1) an assignment of jobs to semitrailers for loading tasks, (2) a sequence for the crane to load jobs onto semitrailers, (3) an assignment of loaded semitrailers to tractors for transportation tasks, and (4) a transportation schedule of assigned tractors such that the completion time of the last transportation task is minimized. We first formulate the problem as a mixed integer linear programming model (MILPM) and prove that the problem is strongly NP‐hard. Then, optimality properties are provided which are useful in establishing an improved MILPM and designing solution algorithms. We develop a constructive heuristic, two LP‐based heuristics, and a recovering beam search heuristic to solve this problem. An improved procedure for solutions by heuristics is also presented. Furthermore, two branch‐and‐bound (B&B) algorithms with two different lower bounds are developed to solve the problem to optimality. Finally, computational experiments using both real data and randomly generated data demonstrate that our heuristics are highly efficient and effective. In terms of computational time and the number of instances solved to optimality in a time limit, the B&B algorithms are better than solving the MILPM. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 62: 416–433, 2015     

压制条件下声纳搜索效能分析

主被动声纳搜索时备次接续探测之间有检测概率的累积.在考虑连续探测的相关性且有水声干扰的情况下,建立了捷径曲线函数和有效搜索宽度计算模型.通过计算噪声干扰器压制前后有效搜索宽度的变化和噪声干扰器在不同位置有效搜索宽度的变化,建立了一种新的定量评估声纳作战效能的有效方法,并对压制条件下的声纳搜索效能进行了评价.计算实例与实...     

舰载红外搜索与跟踪系统的最新现状与发展趋势

详细介绍了国外舰载红外搜索与跟踪系统的研制与装备,包括各国典型系统的特点、研制历史、试验以及装舰服役现状等,提出了舰载红外搜索与跟踪系统的未来发展方向。     

对运动目标螺旋搜索误区分析

对运动目标搜索是军事系统工程的一个重要内容,其在很多领域具有广泛应用,如对潜艇搜索、对失事舰船飞机搜救、制导武器搜索捕捉目标等.用运动学和数学的有关知识分析了目标定速直航机动时的分布函数以及搜索者与其可相遇的条件,提出了对运动目标按螺旋线搜索的另一种证明方法,建立了直线搜索时目标可能位置点的数学模型,并以此为依据分析了对运动目标螺旋搜索模式的一个误区.