Multistage Adaptive Optimization for Steelmaking and Continuous Casting Scheduling under Processing Time Uncertainty

Abstract

The scheduling of steelmaking and continuous casting process is an important exercise for the steel industry. Uncertain processing time can significantly affect the schedule performance. To tackle this uncertainty, a multistage adaptive optimization method is proposed in this work. The proposed method can effectively handle a large number of uncertain parameters and generate an adjustable scheduling policy for online use. The method is flexible in choosing a robust objective or an expectation objective. Results demonstrate that the stochastic adaptive solution is less conservative and can be employed for optimal scheduling of the steelmaking process.