Knowledge-based approaches for scheduling problems: a survey

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the use of knowledge-based techniques for solving scheduling problems. The authors survey several existing intelligent planning and scheduling systems with the aim of providing a guide to the main AI techniques used. In view of the prevailing difference is usage of the terms planning and scheduling between AI and operations research (OR), a taxonomy of planning and scheduling problems is presented. The modeling of real world problems from closed deterministic worlds to complex real worlds is illustrated with a project scheduling example. Some of the more successful planning and scheduling systems are surveyed, and their features are highlighted. The AI approaches are consolidated into knowledge representation and problem solving in the project management context