arXiv · cond-mat/9706141
Airline Crew Scheduling Using Potts Mean Field Techniques
Abstract
A novel method is presented and explored within the framework of Potts neural networks for solving optimization problems with a non-trivial topology, with the airline crew scheduling problem as a target application. The key ingredient to handle the topological complications is a propagator defined in terms of Potts neurons. The approach is tested on artificial problems generated with two real-world problems as templates. The results are compared against the properties of the corresponding unrestricted problems. The latter are subject to a detailed analysis in a companion paper [LU TP 97-11]. Very good results are obtained for a variety of problem sizes. The computer time demand for the approach only grows like (number of flights)^3. A realistic problem typically is solved within minutes, partly due to a prior reduction of the problem size, based on an analysis of the local arrival/departure structure at the single airports. To facilitate the reading for audiences not familiar with Potts neurons and mean field techniques, a brief review is given of recent advances in their application to resource allocation problems.
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M. Lagerholm, C. Peterson, B. Söderberg. 1997-06-13. Airline Crew Scheduling Using Potts Mean Field Techniques. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9706141
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