Directing an Opportunistic Scheduler: An Empirical Investigation of Reactive Scenarios - Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Directing an Opportunistic Scheduler: An Empirical Investigation of Reactive Scenarios

G. Hasle and Stephen Smith
Workshop Paper, Proceedings IFIP SIG 2nd International Workshop on Knowledge-Based Reactive Scheduling, pp. 1 - 11, June, 1994

Abstract

Opportunistic scheduling offers a uniform perspective on predictive and reactive scheduling as iterative problem solving processes. In the context of reactive scheduling, it constitutes a knowledge-directed alternative to more search intensive iterative approaches. By adopting a scheduling process that opportunistically focuses attention on the most critical subproblem and carefully selecting the focal point of the next problem solving effort, one can significantly constrain search while continuing to give attention to important scheduling objectives. Thus, one can maintain high-quality solutions in the face of changing constraints under stringent response time constraints. Control heuristics implemented in an architecture for opportunistic control determines the identification, analysis, and prioritization of subproblems, as well as the formulation of problem solving tasks. The nature of the control architecture determines the the span of control heuristics that may be accommodated. In addition to the repertoire and nature of methods for subproblem resolution, the nature of control heuristics plays a critical role in the performance of opportunistic scheduling systems. This paper describes a novel control architecture which represents a generalization of earlier architectures for opportunistic scheduling. It accommodates what we have denoted as focal point-opportunistic scheduling strategies. New control heuristics that draw upon the extended expressiveness of the novel control architecture are presented, as well as results from a comparative, empirical investigation of these heuristics based on reactive scenarios for a rich factory model.

Notes
IFIP TC5/WG5.7

BibTeX

@workshop{Hasle-1994-13712,
author = {G. Hasle and Stephen Smith},
title = {Directing an Opportunistic Scheduler: An Empirical Investigation of Reactive Scenarios},
booktitle = {Proceedings IFIP SIG 2nd International Workshop on Knowledge-Based Reactive Scheduling},
year = {1994},
month = {June},
pages = {1 - 11},
}