Papers by Riccardo Rasconi
Design and implementation of a distributed part-routing algorithm for reconfigurable transportation systems
International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2015
The Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller (GOAC) is the envisaged result of a multi-institutional e... more The Goal-Oriented Autonomous Controller (GOAC) is the envisaged result of a multi-institutional effort within the on-going Autonomous Controller R&D activ-ity funded by ESA ESTEC. The objective of this effort is to design, build and test a viable on-board controller to demonstrate key concepts in fully autonomous opera-tions for ESA missions. This three-layer architecture is an integrative effort to bring together four mature tech-nologies: for a functional layer, a verification and vali-dation system, a planning engine and a controller frame-work for planning and execution which uses the sense-plan-act paradigm for goal oriented autonomy. GOAC as a result will generate plans in situ, deterministically dispatch activities for execution, and recover from off-nominal conditions.
A Cooperative Model-based Control Agent for a Reconfigurable Manufacturing Plant
Design and implementation of a distributed part routing algorithm for Reconfigurable Transportation Systems
Solving a scheduling problem involves considerations of twofold nature: on one hand, the solution... more Solving a scheduling problem involves considerations of twofold nature: on one hand, the solution must be searched according to specific optimization needs (off-line requirements), while on the other hand, great effort should be employed into producing solutions which can be safely put into execution in unpredictable environments (on-line requirements). In many cases, these two classes of necessities hide mutually conflicting aspects. Aim of my work is to assess the possible integration of off-line and on-line procedures in project scheduling in order to find the best balance between the two, in view of the inherently dynamical utilization of each produced scheduling solution.
In this work we design a benchmark generator for the reactive scheduling problem. This problem co... more In this work we design a benchmark generator for the reactive scheduling problem. This problem consists in monitoring the execution of a schedule and repairing it every time it is deemed necessary. The main motivations behind this work grow out either from the recognized lack (hence the necessity) of benchmark sets for this specific problem as well as from the fact that the resolution of a scheduling problem consists both in the synthesis of an initial solution ("static" or "predictive" scheduling) and in the utilization of a number of methodologies dedicated to the continuous preservation of solution consistency (and quality). In fact, the occurrence of exogenous events during the execution phase in real working environments, often compromises the schedule's original characteristics.
Planning and scheduling services to support facility management in the ISS
The “USOCs Knowledge Integration and dissemination for Space Science Experimentation” (Ulisse) is... more The “USOCs Knowledge Integration and dissemination for Space Science Experimentation” (Ulisse) is a project (funded by EU and indicated by REA as example of successful FP7 project in the Space field) whose objective is data valorization around the ISS experiments. Each USOC (User Support and Operation Centres) is responsible for a particular on-board facility that is to be operated to perform scientific experiments and to generate the related scientific data. One of the main problems that the USOC engineers have to tackle in their daily activities is the synthesis and management of the experiment plans which originate from the requests of the ESA Principal Investigators (PI) and that will have to be approved by the Columbus European Planning Team (EPT) during a phase called Increment Planning Process, and eventually executed on board the scientific facility controlled by the USOC. This work presents the Planning and Scheduling Service (Pss), i.e., the specific service that has been ...
IEEE Symposium on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, ETFA, 2012
Highly automated production systems are conceived to efficiently handle evolving production requi... more Highly automated production systems are conceived to efficiently handle evolving production requirements. This concerns any level of the system from the configuration and control to the management of production. The proposed work deals with the development of an innovative platform jointly managing the production scheduling level and the automation level. The major advantage coming from the platform is the capacity of generating scheduling plans which are executed at automation level and concurrently monitored over time so that any production anomaly or system misbehavior can be dynamically interpreted and adapted by regenerating online a new schedule. The paper describes the current release of our closed loop architecture that integrated both control and automation parts.
Solving a scheduling problem involves considerations of twofold nature: on one hand, the solution... more Solving a scheduling problem involves considerations of twofold nature: on one hand, the solution must be searched according to specific optimization needs (off-line requirements), while on the other hand, great effort should be employed into producing solutions which can be safely put into execution in unpredictable environments (on-line requirements). In many cases, these two classes of necessities hide mutually conflicting aspects. Aim of my work is to assess the possible integration of off-line and on-line procedures in project scheduling in order to find the best balance between the two, in view of the inherently dynamical utilization of each produced scheduling solution.
In this work we design a benchmark generator for the reactive scheduling problem. This problem co... more In this work we design a benchmark generator for the reactive scheduling problem. This problem consists in monitoring the execution of a schedule and repairing it every time it is deemed necessary. The main motivations behind this work grow out either from the recognized lack (hence the necessity) of benchmark sets for this specific problem as well as from the fact that the resolution of a scheduling problem consists both in the synthesis of an initial solution ("static" or "predictive" scheduling) and in the utilization of a number of methodologies dedicated to the continuous preservation of solution consistency (and quality). In fact, the occurrence of exogenous events during the execution phase in real working environments, often compromises the schedule's original characteristics.
Improving Safety and Healthy Life of Elderly People: Italian and Japanese Experiences
Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques, 2009
Google, Inc. (search). ...
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013
Intelligent supervision for ambient intelligence: customizing scheduling technology
IEE Seminar on Intelligent Building Environments, 2005
This paper presents a particular approach to take advantage of ambient intelligence technology. I... more This paper presents a particular approach to take advantage of ambient intelligence technology. It describes an example of intelligent infrastructure in which artificial intelligence problem solving technology is tweaked to monitor human beings in need of constant attention (eg, elderly people alone at home). The ROBOCARE Domestic Environment integrates vision sensors with software technology to supervise daily activities of a person at home. This paper specifically describes the original use of scheduling technology to ...
Coordinating Heterogeneous Agents to Synthesize Proactive Monitoring
This paper describes the results of the ROBOCARE, a project aimed at creating an integrated envir... more This paper describes the results of the ROBOCARE, a project aimed at creating an integrated environment endowed with heterogeneous software and robotic agents for assisting an elderly person at home. Specifically, a proactive environment for continuous daily activity monitoring has been created in which an autonomous robot acts as the main interactor with the person. This paper describes how the
Scatter search with path relinking for the job shop with time lags and setup times
Computers & Operations Research, 2015
ABSTRACT This paper addresses the job shop scheduling problem with time lags and sequence-depende... more ABSTRACT This paper addresses the job shop scheduling problem with time lags and sequence-dependent setup times. This is an extension of the job shop scheduling problem with many applications in real production environments. We propose a scatter search algorithm which uses path relinking and tabu search in its core. We consider both feasible and unfeasible schedules in the execution, and we propose effective neighborhood structures with the objectives of reducing the makespan and regain feasibility. We also define new procedures for estimating the quality of the neighbors. We conducted an experimental study to compare the proposed algorithm with the state-of-the-art, in benchmarks both with and without setups. In this study, our algorithm has obtained very competitive results in a reduced run time.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2011
The paper presents recent work on using robust state-of-the-art AI Planning and Scheduling (P&S) ... more The paper presents recent work on using robust state-of-the-art AI Planning and Scheduling (P&S) techniques to provide autonomous capabilities in a space robotic domain. We have defined a simple robotic scenario, reduced it to a known scheduling problem which is addressed here with a constraint-based, resource-driven reasoner. We present an initial experimentation that compares different meta-heuristic algorithms.
Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering, 2006
In this paper we describe a modeling framework aimed at facilitating the customization and deploy... more In this paper we describe a modeling framework aimed at facilitating the customization and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) scheduling technology in realworld contexts. Specifically, we describe an architecture aimed at facilitating software product line development in the context of scheduling systems. The framework is based on two layers of abstraction: a first layer providing an interface with the scheduling technology, on top of which we define a formalism to abstract domain-specific concepts. We show how this two-layer modeling framework provides a versatile formalism for defining user-oriented problem abstractions, which is pivotal for facilitating interaction between domain experts and technologists. Moreover, we describe a graphical user interface (GUI)-enhanced tool which allows the domain expert to interact with the underlying core scheduling technology in domain-specific terms. This is achieved by automatically instantiating an abstract GUI template on top of the second modeling layer.
Job Shop Scheduling with Setup Times: Exploring the Applicability of a Constraint-based Iterative Sampling Approach
O-OSCAR: a Constraint-Based Architecture for Activity Scheduling and Execution Monitoring
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Papers by Riccardo Rasconi