Comparison of a constraint directed search to a genetic algorithm in a scheduling application

摘要

Scheduling plutonium containers for blending is a time-intensive operation. Several constraints must be taken into account; including the number of containers in a dissolver run, the size of each dissolver run, and the size and target purity of the blended mixture formed from these runs. Two types of algorithms have been used to solve this problem: a constraint directed search and a genetic algorithm. This paper discusses the implementation of these two different approaches to the problem and the strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm.