Real-time Rescheduling of Production Systems using Relational Reinforcement Learning

• Autores: Palombarini, Jorge; Martínez, Ernesto
• Año de publicación: 2011
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Ciencias Informáticas; Learning; Rescheduling; Relational modeling; Agile manufacturing
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Most scheduling methodologies developed until now have laid down good theoretical foundations, but there is still the need for real-time rescheduling methods that can work effectively in disruption management. In this work, a novel approach for automatic generation of rescheduling knowledge using Relational Reinforcement Learning (RRL) is presented. Relational representations of schedule states and repair operators enable to encode in a compact way and use in real-time rescheduling knowledge learned through intensive simulations of state transitions. An industrial example where a current schedule must be repaired following the arrival of a new order is discussed using a prototype application –SmartGantt®- for interactive rescheduling in a reactive way. SmartGantt® demonstrates the advantages of resorting to RRL and abstract states for real-time rescheduling. A small number of training episodes are required to define a repair policy which can handle on the fly events such as order insertion, resource break-down, raw material delay or shortage and rush order arrivals using a sequence of operators to achieve a selected goal.
Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa