Recursive Modeling

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the type of recursive modeling that is required for solution by decision diagrams. It presents a formal development that highlights how solution by decision diagrams differs from traditional enumeration of the state space. It illustrates the versatility of recursive modeling with examples: single facility scheduling, scheduling with sequence-dependent setup times, and minimum bandwidth problems. It shows how to represent state-dependent costs with canonical arc costs in a decision diagram, a technique that can sometimes greatly simplify the recursion, as illustrated by a textbook inventory management problem. It concludes with an extension to nonserial recursive modeling and nonserial decision diagrams.