Sliding Window Distributed Combinatorial Scheduling using JADE

S. Logie, D. Sabaz, W.A. Gruver
IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, The Hague, Netherlands, 2004

This paper describes a fully decentralized, distributed systems approach to job-shop scheduling within a sliding time frame, implemented using the Java Agent Development Environment (JADE). Simulation data has shown that the use of a sliding window approach to implement modular scheduling of orders has a great improvement in network bandwidth usage, while providing comparable resource utilization to full optimization. These results further support the contention that a sliding window approach to distributed scheduling will benefit many areas of application including manufacturing and distributed energy.

techie

I am an Applications Engineer in Vancouver, Canada, currently handling support and product management duties for an ultra-compact embedded computing platform designed for space- and weight-constrained applications. I have been leading teams to support embedded computing platforms for the past few years and have aided and trained customers across North America, Europe, and Asia on a variety of compact rugged computing and software-defined radio platforms.

I earned both Masters and Bachelor degrees in Applied Science at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, where I studies systems engineering and focus my graduate research on multi-agent systems and, particularly, distributed approaches to job shop scheduling. The algorithms I implemented and helped to devise, distributed combinatorial sliding window scheduling, were designed to allow intelligent manufacturing resources to negotiate their own schedules with other production resources, in order to find a schedule that completes all orders in minimum time. The results of my simulations were first presented at the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics in Washington, D.C. in October 2003 and the following year in the Hague, Netherlands. Implemented using JADE (a Java based multi-agent framework), the technique shows vast improvements over centralized methods.

My research was generously funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the BC Advanced Systems Institute, the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, and Simon Fraser University.

notable academic achievements

  • NSERC PGS-A Graduate Fellowship Recipient
  • C.D. Nelson Graduate Entrance Scholarship Recipient
  • B.C. ASI Graduate Fellowship Recipient
  • SFU Alumni Association Outstanding Student Leadership Award Recipient
  • Gordon M Shrum Entrance Scholarship Recipient

publications

  • S. Logie, D. Sabaz, and W.A. Gruver, “Sliding window distributed combinatorial scheduling using JADE,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, The Hague, Netherlands, 2004.
  • S. Logie, D. Sabaz, and W.A. Gruver, “Combinatorial sliding window scheduling for distributed systems,” Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Washington, USA, 2003.