ADVANCED TOOLS FOR AIRLIFT AND TANKER MISSION SCHEDULING
THE AMC BARREL MASTER SCHEDULING PROJECT
Problem
Efficient allocation of aircraft and crews to transportation missions is an important priority at the Air Mobility Command (AMC), where airlift demand must increasingly be met with less capacity and at lower cost. Due to overall problem scale and the time pressure of decision-making, the AMC "Barrel Masters" responsible for making allocation decisions routinely miss opportunities to optimize resource usage.
Status
Using the OZONE
scheduling framework, we have developed a mixed-initiative scheduling
tool
for generating and evaluating such optimization opportunities.
Experimental
results with this "Barrel Allocator" tool using actual historical data
have indicated the potential for substantial reduction in
non-productive
flying time, through better optimization of wing assignments, selective
combination of missions to efficiently "recycle" aircraft, and more
effective
integration of tanker and airlift missions. Following positive review
by
AMC personnel, the AMC Airlift and Air Refueling Allocator has been
released into operational
use within the AMC Tanker
Airlift Command Center (TACC)
as a component of AMC's Consolidated Air Mobility Planning System
(CAMPS).
Background
The AMC Allocator has been
developed
as part of the Advanced Automated Scheduling (AAS) component of the
CAMPS
development effort, which is aimed specifically at applying and
transitioning
new scheduling technologies developed within the DARPA/RL Planning
Initiative.
The AMC Allocator relies on incremental, constraint-based scheduling
techniques. This allows selective re-optimization of allocation
decisions
to accommodate new, higher priority missions while minimizing
disruption
to most previous assignments. Mission scheduling and resource
allocation
capabilities can be invoked in automated or semi-automated modes. In
the
latter case, the system generates and compares different options that
might
be taken. Planners interact with AMC Allocator through graphical
displays,
which incorporate mission-oriented, resource-resource and map-based
views
of the current set of commitments.
Recent Publications
- S. Smith, M. Becker, and L. Kramer, "Continuous Management of Airlift and Tanker Resources: A Constraint-Based Approach", Mathematical and Computer Modeling -- Special Issue on Defense Transportation: Algorithms, Models and Applications for the 21st Centry (Vol. 39, No. 6-8, pp. 581-598), 2004.
- Kramer, L.A. and S.F. Smith, "Optimizing for Change: Mixed-Initiative Resource Allocation with the AMC Barrel Allocator" Proceedings 3rd International NASA Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space, Houston, TX, October, 2002.
- Becker, M. and S.F. Smith, "Mixed-Initiative Resource Management: The AMC Barrel Allocator", Proceedings 5th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling (AIPS-2000), Breckenridge, CO, April, 2000.
Recent Publications Related to the AMC Allocator
- L. Kramer and S. Smith, "The AMC Scheduling Problem: A Description for Reproducibility", tech. report CMU-RI-TR-05-75, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, November, 2005.
- L. Kramer and S. Smith, "Maximizing Availability: A Commitment Heuristic for Oversubscribed Scheduling Problems", Proceedings 15th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, June, 2005.
- D.E. Wilkins, S. Smith, L. Kramer, T.J. Lee, and T.W. Rauenbusch, "Execution Monitoring and Replanning with Incremental and Collaborative Scheduling", Workshop on Multiagent Planning and Scheduling, The 15th International Conference on Automated Planning & Scheduling, June 2005.
- L. Kramer and S. Smith, "Task Swapping for Schedule Improvement: A Broader Analysis", Proceedings 14th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, June, 2004.
- L. Kramer and S. Smith, "Task Swapping: Making Space in Schedules for Space", Fourth International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space (IWPSS '04), June, 2004.
- Kramer, L. and S.F. Smith, "Maximizing Flexibility: A Retraction Heuristic for Over-subscribed Scheduling Problems", 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-03), Acapulco Mexico, August, 2003.
More Information
- AMC ALLOCATOR Technical Overview
- Some Annotated UI Screen Shots
- AMC Allocator Demo (html)
- AMC Allocator Demo Script (MSWord)
- AMC Allocator Reference Manual ( MSWord)
