Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Xerox Corporation

Palo Alto Research Center Incorporate

Minh Binh Do

Rong Zhou

Wheeler Ruml

Robert Roy Price

Johan De Kleer

Lukas Daniel Kuhn

Sudhendu Rai

Robert Michael Lofthus

Serdar Uckun

Haitham Hindi

Tim C Schmidt

Florent C Perronnin

Kristine A German

Michael David Shepherd

Dale Ellen Gaucas

Kirk John Ocke

Claudio Cifarelli

Yizhou Wang

Dashan Gao

Eric Saund

Juan Liu

Sungwook Yoon

Christian Fritz

Lawrence Lee

Craig Lambrecht

Frederick Lidington

Johan Dekleer

J Daniel Benton

Hector Luis Palacios Verdes

Zhou Rong

Lukas Kuhn

A system and method is used to manage scheduling of a plurality of print jobs in a multi-site print shop environment. The multi-site environment includes a plurality of print shops each having resources and equipment to complete at least one type of print job. Also included is a multi-site scheduler configuration arranged to assign and schedule print jobs to one of a home shop and a non-home shop. The assigning and scheduling is based on a fastest completion time, wherein a completion time of a print job in a home shop is defined as the actual time taken to complete the print job and a completion time of a print job in a non-home shop is defined as the actual time taken to complete the print job and a transportation delay.

System and method for multi-site cellular manufacturing with transportation delays

The presently described embodiments provide a systematic approach for handling cost and utility dependencies together in PSP. In particular, the following are provided: an approach for representing utility dependencies between planning goals using the Generalized Additive Independence (GAI), combining utility theory and deterministic planning and, a novel heuristic framework combining cost propagation and IP encoding to capture mutual dependencies of goal achievement cost and goal utility. This leads to informative heuristic estimates guiding a variation of forward state space search planer that solves PSP problems described above.

Method for solving model-based planning with goal utility dependencies

A method and system for searching a graph in parallel which constructs an abstract representation of an AND/OR graph using state-space abstraction. The abstract representation of the graph includes one or more abstract nodes having duplicate detection scopes and one or more abstract edges having operator groups adjusted for AND node outcomes. The duplicate detection scopes of the abstract nodes are partitioned into smaller duplicate detection scopes using edge partitioning, wherein the abstract edges are used to define the smaller duplicate detection scopes. Nodes in the current search layer are expanded by a processing unit using the adjusted operator groups of outgoing abstract edges of the abstract nodes mapped into by the nodes, wherein the nodes expanded in parallel use adjusted operator groups associated with abstract edges having disjoint duplicate detection scopes. The method progresses to the next search layer once all the adjusted operator groups in the current search layer have been used for node expansions.

System and method for parallel edge partitioning in and/or graph search

To preserve job integrity and minimize multi-site coordination overhead such as shipping, a technique to control the amount of outsourcing activities in a distributed manufacturing environment is provided. This approach to multi-site scheduling allows outsourcing control for distributed cellular manufacturing based on scheduling constraints called outsourcing group constraints.

System and method for distributed cellular manufacturing with outsourcing group constraints

A method and system for performing a graph search, includes constructing an abstract representation of the graph using state-space abstraction. The abstract representation of the graph includes one or more abstract nodes having duplicate detection scopes and one or more abstract edges having operator groups. The duplicate detection scopes of the abstract nodes are partitioned into smaller duplicate detection scopes using edge partitioning. The abstract edges include the smaller duplicate detection scopes. Nodes in the current search layer are expanded using the operator groups of outgoing abstract edges of the abstract nodes the nodes map to. The operator groups associated with abstract edges having disjoint duplicate detection scopes are used to expand the nodes in parallel. Once all the operator groups in the current search layer have been used for node expansion the method progresses to the next search layer.

System and method for parallel graph searching utilizing parallel edge partitioning

Systems and methods are described that facilitate performing model-based planning techniques for allocations of multi-capacity resources in a machine. The machine may be, for instance, a printing platform, such as a xerographic machine. According to various features, the multi-capacity resource may be a sheet buffer, and temporal constraints may be utilized to determine whether an insertion point for a new allocation of the sheet buffer is feasible. Multiple insertion points may be evaluated (e.g., serially or in parallel) to facilitate determining an optimal solution for a print job or the like.

Model-based planning with multi-capacity resources

A warehouse management system including a layout module which determines a layout of the automated warehouse, the layout including at least one occupied cell and at least one blank cell and an analysis module which analyzes the layout of the automated warehouse to determine a minimum number of blank cells required to retrieve an object from all of the occupied cells in the warehouse.

Method for identifying the maximal packing density of shifting-tiles automated warehouses

An improved automated planning method and system includes the use of an automated planner for validating a workflow plan with respect to device capabilities. As such, the present invention provides for an improved method and system for implementing and managing workflow plans utilized in printing environments such as, for example, print shops. A plurality of device capability descriptions can be converted into a data indicative of facts and operators for utilizing in a knowledge-based reasoning system. Next, a workflow plan can be converted into properties indicative of a goal state. The goal state and the data indicative of facts and operators can then be utilized in association with a domain-independent or domain-dependent planner to determine if said workflow plan is valid and executable in order to thereby validate said workflow plan.

System and method for automatically validating a workflow plan using an automated planner

The present application presents a new and improved system and method of enhanced Lean Document Production (LDP), which employs cellular manufacturing concepts. The LDP process incorporates an auto-splitting algorithm and/or an earliest completion route algorithm to generate an operation schedule.

System for adaptive lot sizing in cellular manufacturing for balancing workloads across multiple cells using split-then-merge operations and earliest completion route algorithm

An educational recommender system and a method are provided. The method includes receiving a request to recommend a course of action related to a plurality of current students; accessing a computer database storing student data that corresponds to the plurality of current students; clustering in a computer process the plurality of current students into at least two clusters based at least on granular assessment data associated with student data corresponding to respective current students; and outputting the results of the clustering to a user. The granular assessment data includes a result of an assessment administered to respective students of the plurality of current students, and each assessment includes a plurality of questions for assessing one of the current students. The associated result includes an independent evaluation of each respective question of the plurality of questions.

System and method for recommending educational resources

An improved automated planning method and system includes the use of an automated planner for generating a plan template and a final plan generator to produce a fully parameterized workflow plan. Such an approach provides for the generation of fully parameterized workflow plans utilized in rendering environments. A plurality of device capability descriptions can be converted into a data indicative of facts and operators for use with an automated planner, which can be either domain-independent or domain-dependent. Next, a formal product description can be converted into properties indicative of a goal state. The goal state and the data indicative of facts and operators can then be utilized with the automated planner to synthesize a plan template. The plan template is then provided to a final plan generator, along with a formal product description, to produce a fully parameterized workflow plan.

System and method for automated generation of a fully parameterized workflow plan

Intelligent product feed systems and product transport methods are presented in which an array of variable speed transport modules is positioned between an input transport mechanism and an output mechanism, with the individual module speeds being controlled by a model-based planner to transport products delivered in an uncertain fashion by the input transport mechanism to the output mechanism synchronized and oriented according to a specified product configuration.

Intelligent product feed system and method

A computer-based method and system for AI planning based quasi-Monte Carlo simulation for probabilistic planning are provided. The method includes generating a set of possible actions for an initial state, generating a set of sample future outcomes, generating solutions for each of the sample future outcomes, using an AI planner, generating a set of future outcome solutions that are low probability and high-impact, combining the solutions generated from each of the sample future outcomes with the future outcome solutions generated by the AI Planner into an aggregated set of future outcome solutions, analyzing the aggregated set of future outcome solutions, selecting a best action based at least partially on the analysis of the aggregated set of future outcome solutions, and outputting the selected best action to computer memory.

AI planning based quasi-montecarlo simulation method for probabilistic planning

The present application a new and improved system and method of enhanced Lean Document Production (LDP), which applies cellular manufacturing to document printing operations. The LDP process incorporates process friendly cells and, a push model to order to improve efficiency, reduce work in progress and smooth out the 'frictions' in production environments. The current application presents an earliest-completion-time strategy for assigning jobs to cells and a dynamic-priority-based-batch-scheduling algorithm.

Dynamic scheduling of jobs/batches using earliest completion time algorithm in cellular manufacturing with batch-splitting of jobs above certain size

Features described herein relate to concurrently processing multiple batches of job requests for one or more machines and/or components thereof, using a plurality of job planning queues. Each batch of job requests is allocated to a planning queue, and each planning queue comprises an unplanned subqueue that stores unplanned jobs, an unsent subqueue that stores planned jobs waiting to be executed, and a sent subqueue that stores planned jobs that have been output to the machine(s) for execution. A job planner and related components determine which unsent subqueue has the fewest planned jobs at a given point in time, and selects an unplanned job from the unplanned subqueue in the same planning queue as the identified unsent subqueue. The planner then generates a plan for the selected job and inserts the planned job into the unsent subqueue for eventual output to the machine(s) for execution. In this manner, the unsent subqueues for each planning queue are maintained with substantially equal numbers of planned jobs ready for execution, which improves throughput by ensuring that all machines and/or associated components are kept busy.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Minh Binh Do