A Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization Model and a Column-Row Generation Method for Integrated Aircraft Maintenance-Routing and Crew Rostering

Motivated by a critical issue of airline planning process,this paper addresses a new two-stage scenario-based robust optimization in operational airline planning to cope with uncertainty and possible flight disruptions.Following the route network scheme and generated flight timetables,aircraft maintenance routing and crew scheduling are critical factors in airline planning and operations cost management.This study considers the simultaneous assignment of aircraft fleet and crew to the scheduled flight while satisfying a set of operational constraints,rules,and regulations.Considering multiple locations for airline maintenance and crew bases,we solve the problem of integrated Aircraft Maintenance Routing and Crew Rostering(AMRCR)to achieve the minimum airline cost.One real challenge to the efficiency of the planning results is the possible disruptions in the initial scheduled flights.Due to the fact that disruption scenarios are expressed discretely with a specified probability,and we provide adjustable decisions under disruption to deal with this disruption risk,we provide a Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization(TSRO)model.In this model,here-and-now or first-stage variables are the initial resource assignment.Furthermore,to adapt itself to different disruption scenarios,the model considers some adjustable variables,such as the decision to cancel the flight in case of disruption,as wait-and-see or second-stage variables.Considering the complexity of integrated models,and the scenario-based decomposable structure of the TRSO model to solve it with better computational performance,we apply the column and row generation(CRG)method that iteratively considers the disruption scenarios.The numerical results confirm the applicability of the proposed TSRO model in providing the AMRCR problem with an integrated and robust solution with an acceptable level of computational tractability.To evaluate the proposed TSRO model,which solves the AMRCR problem in an integrated and robust manner,five Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)like Number of delayed/canceled flights,Average delay time,and Average profit are taken into account.As key results driven by conducting a case study,we show the proposed TSRO model has substantially improved the solutions at all indicators compared with those of the sequential/non-integrated and nominal/non-robust models.The simulated instances used to assess the performance of the proposed model and CRG method reveal that both CPLEX and the CRG method exhibit comparable and nearly optimal performance for small-scale problems.However,for large-scale instances the proposed TSRO model falls short in terms of computational efficiency.Conversely,the proposed CRG method is capable of significantly reducing computational time and the optimality gap to an acceptable level.

Next Generation Transcriptome Sequencing and Quantitative Real-Time PCR Technologies for Characterisation of the Bemisia tabaci Asia 1 mtCOI Phylogenetic Clade

A programme of functional genomics research is underway at the University of Greenwich,UK,to develop and apply genomics technologies to characterise an economically-important but under-researched Bemisia tabaci（Hemiptera：Aleyrodidae）,the Asia 1 mtCOI phylogenetic group.A comparison of this putative species from India with other important B.tabaci populations and insect species may provide targets for the development of more effective whitefly control strategies.As a first step,next-generation sequencing（NGS）has been used to survey the transcriptome of adult female whitefly,with high quality RNA preparations being used to generate cDNA libraries for NGS using the Roche 454 Titanium DNA sequencing platform.Contig assemblies constructed from the resultant sequences（301 094 reads）using the software program CLC Genomics Workbench generated 3 821 core contigs.Comparison of a selection of these contigs with related sequences from other B.tabaci genetic groups has revealed good alignment for some genes（e.g.,HSP90）but misassemblies in other datasets（e.g.,the vitellogenin gene family）,highlighting the need for manual curation as well as collaborative international efforts to obtain accurate assemblies from the existing next generation sequence datasets.Nevertheless,data emerging from the NGS has facilitated the development of accurate and reliable methods for analysing gene expression based on quantitative real-time RT-PCR,illustrating the power of this approach to enable rapid expression analyses in an organism for which a complete genome sequence is currently lacking.

An On-Line Scheduler over Hard Real-Time Communication System

By thorough research on the prominent periodic and aperiodic scheduling algorithms,anon-line hard real-time scheduler is presented,which is applicable to the scheduling of packets over a link.This scheduler,based on both Rate Monotonic,pinwheel scheduling algorithm Sr and Polling Serverscheduling algorithms,can rapidly judge the schedulability and then automatically generate a bus tablefor the scheduling algorithm to schedule the packets as the periodic packets.The implementation of thescheduler is simple and easy to use,and it is effective for the utilization of bus link.The orderly executionof the bus table can not only guarantee the performance of the hard real time but also avoid the blockageand interruption of the message transmission.So the scheduler perfectly meets the demand of hard real-time communication system on the field bus domain.

Long-release-interval-first real-time scheduling algorithm and its schedulability test

To fulfill the requirements for hybrid real-time system scheduling, a long-release-interval-first （LRIF） real-time scheduling algorithm is proposed. The algorithm adopts both the fixed priority and the dynamic priority to assign priorities for tasks. By assigning higher priorities to the aperiodic soft real-time jobs with longer release intervals, it guarantees the executions for periodic hard real-time tasks and further probabilistically guarantees the executions for aperiodic soft real-time tasks. The schedulability test approach for the LRIF algorithm is presented. The implementation issues of the LRIF algorithm are also discussed. Simulation result shows that LRIF obtains better schedulable performance than the maximum urgency first （MUF） algorithm, the earliest deadline first （EDF） algorithm and EDF for hybrid tasks. LRIF has great capability to schedule both periodic hard real-time and aperiodic soft real-time tasks.

Real-time scheduling strategy for microgrids considering operation interval division of DGs and batteries

Real-time scheduling as an on-line optimization process must output dispatch results in real time. However, the calculation time required and the economy have a trade-off relationship. In response to a real-time scheduling problem, this paper proposes a real-time scheduling strategy considering the operation interval division of distributed generators(DGs) and batteries in the microgrid. Rolling scheduling models, including day-ahead scheduling and hours-ahead scheduling, are established, where the latter considers the future state-of-charge deviations. For the real-time scheduling, the output powers of the DGs are divided into two intervals based on the ability to track the day-ahead and hours-ahead schedules. The day-ahead and hours-ahead scheduling ensure the economy, whereas the real-time scheduling overcomes the timeconsumption problem. Finally, a grid-connected microgrid example is studied, and the simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in terms of economic and real-time requirements.

SWARM INTELLIGENCE BASED DYNAMIC REAL-TIME SCHEDULING APPROACH FOR SEMICONDUCTOR WAFER FAB

Based on the analysis of collective activities of ant colonies, the typicalexample of swarm intelligence, a new approach to construct swarm intelligence basedmulti-agent-system (SMAS) for dynamic real-time scheduling for semiconductor wafer fab is proposed.The relevant algorithm, pheromone-based dynamic real-time scheduling algorithm (PBDR), is given.MIMAC test bed data set mini-fab is used to compare PBDR with FIFO (first in first out),SRPT(shortest remaining processing time) and CR(critical ratio) under three different release rules,i.e. deterministic rule, Poisson rule and CONWIP (constant WIP). It is shown that PBDR is prior toFIFO, SRPT and CR with better performance of cycle time, throughput, and on-time delivery,especially for on-time delivery performance.

Adaptive Resource Planning for AI Workloads with Variable Real-Time Tasks

AI(Artificial Intelligence)workloads are proliferating in modernreal-time systems.As the tasks of AI workloads fluctuate over time,resourceplanning policies used for traditional fixed real-time tasks should be reexamined.In particular,it is difficult to immediately handle changes inreal-time tasks without violating the deadline constraints.To cope with thissituation,this paper analyzes the task situations of AI workloads and findsthe following two observations.First,resource planning for AI workloadsis a complicated search problem that requires much time for optimization.Second,although the task set of an AI workload may change over time,thepossible combinations of the task sets are known in advance.Based on theseobservations,this paper proposes a new resource planning scheme for AIworkloads that supports the re-planning of resources.Instead of generatingresource plans on the fly,the proposed scheme pre-determines resourceplans for various combinations of tasks.Thus,in any case,the workload isimmediately executed according to the resource plan maintained.Specifically,the proposed scheme maintains an optimized CPU(Central Processing Unit)and memory resource plan using genetic algorithms and applies it as soonas the workload changes.The proposed scheme is implemented in the opensourcesimulator SimRTS for the validation of its effectiveness.Simulationexperiments show that the proposed scheme reduces the energy consumptionof CPU and memory by 45.5%on average without deadline misses.

An Optimal Dynamic Generation Scheduling for a Wind-Thermal Power System

In this paper, a dynamic generation scheduling model is formulated, aiming at minimizing the costs of power generation and taking into account the constraints of thermal power units and spinning reserve in wind power integrated systems. A dynamic solving method blended with particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed. In this method, the solution space of the states of unit commitment is created and will be updated when the status of unit commitment changes in a period to meet the spinning reserve demand. The thermal unit operation constrains are inspected in adjacent time intervals to ensure all the states in the solution space effective. The particle swarm algorithm is applied in the procedure to optimize the load distribution of each unit commitment state. A case study in a simulation system is finally given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of this dynamic optimization algorithm.

A Model Predictive Scheduling Algorithm inReal-Time Control Systems

Abstract-The ineffective utilization of power resources has attracted much attention in current years. This paper proposes a real-time distributed load scheduling algorithm considering constraints of power supply. Firstly, an objective function is designed based on the constraint, and a base load forecasting model is established when aggregating renewable generation and non-deferrable load into a power system, which aims to transform the problem of deferrable loads scheduling into a distributed optimal control problem. Then, to optimize the objective function, a real-time scheduling algorithm is presented to solve the proposed control problem. At every time step, the purpose is to minimize the variance of differences between power supply and aggregate load, which can thus ensure the effective utilization of power resources. Finally, simulation examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Application of predictive control scheduling method to real-time periodic control tasks overrun

Based on the abort strategy of fixed periods, a novel predictive control scheduling methodology was proposed to efficiently solve overrun problems. By applying the latest control value in the prediction sequences to the control objective, the new strategy was expected to optimize the control system for better performance and yet guarantee the schedulability of all tasks under overrun. The schedulability of the real-time systems with p-period overruns was analyzed, and the corresponding stability criteria was given as well. The simulation results show that the new approach can improve the performance of control system compared to that of conventional abort strategy, it can reduce the overshoot and adjust time as well as ensure the schedulability and stability.

Short-term power generation scheduling rules for cascade hydropower stations based on hybrid algorithm

Power generation dispatching is a large complex system problem with multi-dimensional and nonlinear characteristics. A mathematical model was established based on the principle of reservoir operation. A large quantity of optimal scheduling processes were obtained by calculating the daily runoff process within three typical years, and a large number of simulated daily runoff processes were obtained using the progressive optimality algorithm （POA） in combination with the genetic algorithm （GA）. After analyzing the optimal scheduling processes, the corresponding scheduling rules were determined, and the practical formulas were obtained. These rules can make full use of the rolling runoff forecast and carry out the rolling scheduling. Compared with the optimized results, the maximum relative difference of the annual power generation obtained by the scheduling rules is no more than 1%. The effectiveness and practical applicability of the scheduling rules are demonstrated by a case study. This study provides a new perspective for formulating the rules of power generation dispatching.

FEL-H Robust Control Real-Time Scheduling

The existing scheduling algorithms cannot adequately support modern embedded real-time applications. An important challenge for future research is how to model and introduce control mechanisms to real-time systems to improve real-time performance, and to allow the system to adapt to changes in the environment, the workload, or to changes in the system architecture due to failures. In this paper, we pursue this goal by formulating and simulating new real-time scheduling models that enable us to easily analyse feedback scheduling with various constraints, overload and disturbance, and by designing a robust, adaptive scheduler that responds gracefully to overload with robust H∞ and feedback error learning control.

Broadcast Scheduling Strategy Based on the Priority of Real-Time Data in a Mobile Environment

Data broadcast is an important data dissemination approach in mobile environment. On broadcast channel, scalability and efficiency of data transmission are satisfied. In a mobile environment, there exists a kind of real-time database application in which both the transactions and data can have their timing constraints and priorities of different levels. In order to meet the requirement of real-time data disseminating and retrieving, a broadcast scheduling strategy HPF-ED F (Highest Priority First with Earlier Deadline and Frequency) is proposed under the BoD (Broadcast on Demand) model. Using the strategy, data items are scheduled according to their priority the transaction imposed on them or system set for them. The strategy also considers other characteristics of data items such as deadline and popularity of data. The extensive simulation experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Results show that it can achieve excellent performance compared with existing strategies.

SET-MRTS:An Empirical Experiment Tool for Real-Time Scheduling and Synchronization

In the real-time scheduling theory,schedulability and synchronization analyses are used to evaluate scheduling algorithms and real-time locking protocols,respectively,and the empirical synthesis experiment is one of the major methods to compare the performance of such analyses.However,since many sophisticated techniques have been adopted to improve the analytical accuracy,the implementation of such analyses and experiments is often time-consuming.This paper proposes a schedulability experiment toolkit for multiprocessor real-time systems(SET-MRTS),which provides a framework with infrastructures to implement the schedulability and synchronization analyses and the deployment of empirical synthesis experiments.Besides,with well-designed peripheral components for the input and output,experiments can be conducted easily and flexibly on SET-MRTS.This demonstration further proves the effectiveness of SET-MRTS in both functionality and availability.

An Adaptive Genetic Algorithm for Multiprocessor Real-time Task Scheduling

Real-time task scheduling is of primary significance in multiprocessor systems.Meeting deadlines and achieving high system utilization are the two main objectives of task scheduling in such systems.In this paper,we represent those two goals as the minimization of the average response time and the average task laxity.To achieve this,we propose a genetic-based algorithm with problem-specific and efficient genetic operators.Adaptive control parameters are also employed in our work to improve the genetic algorithms' efficiency.The simulation results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms its counterpart considerably by up to 36% and 35% in terms of the average response time and the average task laxity,respectively.

Learning to branch in the generation maintenance scheduling problem

To maximize the reliability index of a power system,this study modeled a generation maintenance scheduling problem that considers the network security constraints and rationality constraints of the generation maintenance practice in a power system.In view of the computational complexity of the generation maintenance scheduling model,a variable selection method based on a support vector machine(SVM)is proposed to solve the 0-1 mixed integer programming problem(MIP).The algorithm observes and collects data from the decisions made by strong branching(SB)and then learns a surrogate function that mimics the SB strategy using a support vector machine.The learned ranking function is then used for variable branching during the solution process of the model.The test case showed that the proposed variable selection algorithm-based on the features of the proposed generation maintenance scheduling problem during branch-and-bound-can increase the solution efficiency of the generation-scheduling model on the premise of guaranteed accuracy.

Energy-Efficient Deterministic Fault-Tolerant Scheduling for Embedded Real-Time Systems

By combining fault-tolerance with power management, this paper developed a new method for aperiodic task set for the problem of task scheduling and voltage allocation in embedded real-time systems. The scbedulability of the system was analyzed through checkpointing and the energy saving was considered via dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. Simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm had better performance compared with the existing voltage allocation techniques. The proposed technique saves 51.5% energy over FT-Only and 19.9% over FT ＋ EC on average. Therefore, the proposed method was more appropriate for aperiodic tasks in embedded real-time systems.

Packet Scheduling Algorithm for Real-Time Services in Broadband WMAN

Packet scheduling algorithm is the key technology to guarantee Quality of Service (QoS) and balance the fairness between users in broadband Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN). Based on the research of Proportional Fairness (PF) algorithm and Modified Largest Weighted Delay First (M-LWDF) algorithm, a new packet scheduling algorithm for real-time services in broadband WMAN, called Enhanced M-LWDF (EM-LWDF), was proposed. The algorithm phases in new information to measure the load of service queues and updates the state parameters in real-time way, which remarkably improves system performance.Simulation results show that comparing with M-LWDF algorithm, the proposed algorithm is advantageous in performances of queuing delay and fairness while guaranteeing system throughput.

Simulation of large-scale numerical substructure in real-time dynamic hybrid testing

A solution scheme is proposed in this paper for an existing RTDHT system to simulate large-scale finite element （FE） numerical substructures. The analysis of the FE numerical substructure is split into response analysis and signal generation tasks, and executed in two different target computers in real-time. One target computer implements the response analysis task, wherein a large time-step is used to solve the FE substructure, and another target computer implements the signal generation task, wherein an interpolation program is used to generate control signals in a small time-step to meet the input demand of the controller. By using this strategy, the scale of the FE numerical substructure simulation may be increased significantly. The proposed scheme is initially verified by two FE numerical substructure models with 98 and 1240 degrees of freedom （DOFs）. Thereafter, RTDHTs of a single frame-foundation structure are implemented where the foundation, considered as the numerical substructure, is simulated by the FE model with 1240 DOFs. Good agreements between the results of the RTDHT and those from the FE analysis in ABAQUS are obtained.

Construction Simulation and Real-Time Control for High Arch Dam

A method of combining dynamic simulation with real-time control was proposed to fit the randomness and uncertainty in the high arch dam construction process. The mathematical logic model of high arch dam construction process was established. By combining dynamic construction simulation with schedule analysis, the process of construction schedule forecasting and analysis based on dynamic simulation was studied. The process of real-time schedule control was constructed and some measures for dynamic adjustment and control of construction schedule were provided. A system developed with the method is utilized in a being constructed hydroelectric project located at the Yellow River in northwest China, which can make the pouring plan of the dam in the next stage (a month, quarter or year) to guide the practical construction. The application result shows that the system provides an effective technical support for the construction and management of the dam.