Scheduling policies for an antiterrorist surveillance system

This article concerns scheduling policies in a surveillance system aimed at detecting a terrorist attack in time. Terrorist suspects arriving at a public area are subject to continuous monitoring, while a surveillance team takes their biometric signatures and compares them with records stored in a terrorist database. Because the surveillance team can screen only one terrorist suspect at a time, the team faces a dynamic scheduling problem among the suspects. We build a model consisting of an M/G/1 queue with two types of customers—red and white—to study this problem. Both types of customers are impatient but the reneging time distributions are different. The server only receives a reward by serving a red customer and can use the time a customer has spent in the queue to deduce its likely type. In a few special cases, a simple service rule—such as first‐come‐first‐serve—is optimal. We explain why the problem is in general difficult and we develop a heuristic policy motivated by the fact that terrorist attacks tend to be rare events. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009     

基于最大保障时间的战时装备维修任务调度模型

战时维修机构承担的维修任务比较繁重,合理、科学地安排维修任务可以有效地提高作战部队的战斗力.对此,分析了战时维修任务调度的特点,建立了基于最大保障时间的维修任务静态、动态调度模型,并提出了相应的模型求解方法.利用本方法在满足作战单元最大保障时间前提下,可使得装备维修效益最大,并可以实现实时动态维修任务调度,有效地解决了一种战时维修任务调度问题.     

预定增益理论在导弹飞行控制系统中的应用

针对导弹在飞行过程中动力学特性大范围变化的特点,以俯仰通道为例,运用预定增益控制理论设计导弹飞行控制系统,即利用导弹空气动力学特性和导弹某些特征参数的强相关性来调整控制器参数,确保导弹在要求的飞行条件下满足稳定性和动态品质.最后通过仿真验证了所设计的控制器满足性能要求.     

Replacing nonidentical vital components to extend system life

We consider a system that depends on a single vital component. If this component fails, the system life will terminate. If the component is replaced before its failure then the system life may be extended; however, there are only a finite number of spare components. In addition, the lifetimes of these spare components are not necessarily identically distributed. We propose a model for scheduling component replacements so as to maximize the expected system survival. We find the counterintuitive result that when comparing components' general lifetime distributions based on stochastic orderings, not even the strongest ordering provides an a priori guarantee of the optimal sequencing of components. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

A note on combined job selection and sequencing problems

We investigate the solvability of two single‐machine scheduling problems when the objective is to identify among all job subsets with cardinality k,1≤k≤n, the one that has the minimum objective function value. For the single‐machine minimum maximum lateness problem, we conclude that the problem is solvable in O(n²) time using the proposed REMOVE algorithm. This algorithm can also be used as an alternative to Moore's algorithm to solve the minimum number of tardy jobs problem by actually solving the hierarchical problem in which the objective is to minimize the maximum lateness subject to the minimum number of tardy jobs. We then show that the REMOVE algorithm cannot be used to solve the general case of the single‐machine total‐weighted completion time problem; we derive sufficient conditions among the job parameters so that the total weighted completion time problem becomes solvable in O(n²) time. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 449–453, 2013     

非周期不完全检测下的维修优化

针对gamma退化型单部件系统,基于更新和半更新过程理论建立了以期望费用率最小为目标的非周期不完全检测下的维修优化模型。利用检测规划函数使系统的检测间隔期可以依据系统的状态进行调整。为更加贴近实际,模型考虑了测量误差对维修优化的影响。通过计算可以得到最优预防性维修阈值和检测方案。给出了模型的应用算例,通过对退化速率和费用参数的灵敏度分析说明了模型的有效性。与不考虑检测误差的优化结果进行对比,证明了考虑检测误差的重要性。     

Interval scheduling: A survey

In interval scheduling, not only the processing times of the jobs but also their starting times are given. This article surveys the area of interval scheduling and presents proofs of results that have been known within the community for some time. We first review the complexity and approximability of different variants of interval scheduling problems. Next, we motivate the relevance of interval scheduling problems by providing an overview of applications that have appeared in literature. Finally, we focus on algorithmic results for two important variants of interval scheduling problems. In one variant we deal with nonidentical machines: instead of each machine being continuously available, there is a given interval for each machine in which it is available. In another variant, the machines are continuously available but they are ordered, and each job has a given “maximal” machine on which it can be processed. We investigate the complexity of these problems and describe algorithms for their solution. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

Integrated production scheduling and preventive maintenance planning for a single machine under a cumulative damage failure process

This paper finds the optimal integrated production schedule and preventive maintenance plan for a single machine exposed under a cumulative damage process, and investigates how the optimal preventive maintenance plan interacts with the optimal production schedule. The goal is to minimize the total tardiness. The optimal policy possesses the following properties: Under arbitrary maintenance plan when jobs have common processing time, and different due dates, the optimal production schedule is to order the jobs by earliest due date first rule; and when jobs have common due date and different processing times, the optimal production schedule is shortest processing time first. The optimal maintenance plan is of control limit type under any arbitrary production schedule when machine is exposed under a cumulative damage failure process. Numerical studies on the optimal maintenance control limit of the maintenance plan indicate that as the number of jobs to be scheduled increases, the effect of jobs due dates on the optimal maintenance control limit diminishes. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007     

A m‐parallel crane scheduling problem with a non‐crossing constraint

In this paper, we study a m‐parallel machine scheduling problem with a non‐crossing constraint motivated by crane scheduling in ports. We decompose the problem to allow time allocations to be determined once crane assignments are known and construct a backtracking search scheme that manipulates domain reduction and pruning strategies. Simple approximation heuristics are developed, one of which guarantees solutions to be at most two times the optimum. For large‐scale problems, a simulated annealing heuristic that uses random neighborhood generation is provided. Computational experiments are conducted to test the algorithms. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007.