This paper proposes an extension of the constraint-based approach to job-shop scheduling, that accounts for the flexibility of temporal constraints and the uncertainty of operation durations. The set of solutions to a problem is viewed as a fuzzy set whose membership function reflects preference. This membership function is obtained by an egalitarist aggregation of local constraint-satisfaction levels. Uncertainty is qualitatively described in terms of possibility distributions. The paper formulates a simple mathematical model of job-shop scheduling under preference and uncertainty, relating it to the formal framework of constraint-satisfaction problems in artificial intelligence. A combinatorial search method that solves the problem is outlined, including fuzzy extensions of well-known look-ahead schemes.
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Dubois, D., Fargier, H. & Prade, H. Fuzzy constraints in job-shop scheduling. J Intell Manuf 6, 215–234 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128646
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128646