Method of planning train movement using a three step optimization engine
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsWolfgang Daum, John Hershey, Randall Markley, Paul Julich, Mitchell Scott Wills, David Davenport
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of scheduling network resources in a first domain by transforming the problem to a second domain, solving the problem and transforming back to the first domain.
Claims7
A method of scheduling the use of a plurality of resources in a rail network in a first-time space domain having predetermined constraints, comprising:
- (a) transforming the network resources scheduling problem to a second domain by relaxing some of the predetermined constraints;
- (b) measuring the historical performance of the scheduled network resources;
- (c) performing a sensitivity analysis of the measured historical performance to identify the relative importance of a variable affecting the performance;
- and
- (d) solving the scheduling problem as a function of the identified relative importance;
- and
- (e) transforming the solved transformed network resources scheduling problem back to the first time-space domain.
A method of scheduling the use of a plurality of resources in a rail network in a first domain having a set of predetermined constraints, comprising:
- (a) transforming the network resources scheduling problem to a plurality of domains by relaxing the set of predetermined constraints;
- (b) for each of the plurality of domains:
- (i) measuring the historical performance of the scheduled network resources;
- (ii) performing a sensitivity analysis of the measured historical performance to determine the relative importance of a variable affecting the performance;
- (iii) identifying the most important variables using a predetermined criteria;
- (c) selecting the domain having the fewest number of identified important variables;
- (d) solving the transformed network resources problem in the selected domain;
- and
- (e) transforming the solved transformed network resources scheduling problem back to the first domain.
A system for scheduling the use of a plurality of resources in a rail network in a first time-space domain having a predetermined set of constraints, comprising:
- a database containing measurements of a historical performance of scheduled network resources;
- a processor programmed to:
- (i) transform the network resources scheduling problem to a second domain by relaxing the predetermined set of constraints;
- (ii) access the database to perform a sensitivity analysis of the measured historical performance to identify the relative importance of a variable affecting the performance;
- (iii) solve the scheduling problem as a function of the identified relative importance;
- (iv) transform the solved transformed network resources scheduling problem back to the first time-space domain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.