The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 15, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 28, 2005
Alex Michael Heinold, Carrollton, TX (US);
Alex Michael Heinold, Carrollton, TX (US);
Southwest Airlines Co., Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems, including systems for implementing computer software, use constraint programming to generate a schedule for transportation resources. A constraint propagation algorithm is used to eliminate invalid schedule options based on a first set of constraints in a network of transportation resources. Execution of the constraint propagation algorithm generates a reduced set of schedule options. A backtracking constraint programming algorithm and the reduced set of schedule options are then used to generate at least one proposed schedule. The backtracking algorithm is operable to select particular schedule options from the reduced set of schedule options based on a second set of constraints.