A distributed constraint-based scheduler

• Published in: Artificial intelligence in engineering Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 91 - 105
• Main Authors: Lamma, E., Mello, P., Milano, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.1997; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Computer science; control theory; systems; constraint logic programming; Control theory. Systems; distribution; Exact sciences and technology; Ground, air and sea transportation, marine construction; Learning and adaptive systems; Process control. Computer integrated manufacturing; railway traffic control; Railway transportation and traffic; scheduling; temporal reasoning; scheduling; constraint logic programming; railway traffic control; distribution; temporal reasoning; System architecture; Control system; Expert system; Scheduling; Distributed system; C language; Implementation; System performance; Traffic management; Distribution; Rail traffic; Resource management; Artificial intelligence
• ISSN: 0954-1810
• DOI: 10.1016/S0954-1810(96)00002-7

This paper presents the design and implementation of a distributed advisory system which helps different human experts in the management and control of traffic within railway stations and along railway branches. Our approach allows the management of a whole railway line in a modular, expandable and scalable way. The scheduling of trains along a railway line is performed by several modules each one controlling a certain number of resources. These modules solve the scheduling of trains by interacting and communicating with each other. Each module has to deal with temporal constraints, priority between trains and constraints due to the structure of the station and railway branches. Our approach is based on the constraint logic programming (CLP) paradigm for solving the constraints involved in the problem. Therefore, this paper shows the versatility and adequacy of the CLP approach for the problems of this type.