Contract Net based Scheduling Approach using Interactive Bidding for Dynamic Job Shop Scheduling

Abstract

Dynamic scheduling should take into account machine scheduling in that flexible manufacturing system can provide alternative processing routes to produce the same product. Dispatching rules (DRs) are the most prevalent approach in the dynamic scheduling system. Existing rule-based scheduling approaches seldom address the machine selection. Considering both job selection and machine selection, we present contract net based scheduling approach which works by means of interactive biddings. Using dispatching rules, we construct five contract net protocol rules (CNP-rulcs) within the heterarchical control architecture to solve job-shop dynamic scheduling problems. The experimental results of multiple CNP-rules based scheduling approach are provided. Competitive results demonstrate that the CNP-rules not only yield evident improvements in the system performance, but also get better equipment utilization and load balancing level for the scheduling system.