A constraint programming approach for non-preemptive evacuation scheduling

Caroline Even, Andreas Schutt*, Pascal Van Hentenryck

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Large-scale controlled evacuations require emergency services to select evacuation routes, decide departure times, and mobilize resources to issue orders, all under strict time constraints. Existing algorithms almost always allow for preemptive evacuation schedules, which are less desirable in practice. This paper proposes, for the first time, a constraint-based scheduling model that optimizes the evacuation flow rate (number of vehicles sent at regular time intervals) and evacuation phasing of widely populated areas, while ensuring a non-preemptive evacuation for each residential zone. Two optimization objectives are considered: (1) to maximize the number of evacuees reaching safety and (2) to minimize the overall duration of the evacuation. Preliminary results on a set of real-world instances show that the approach can produce, within a few seconds, a non-preemptive evacuation schedule which is either optimal or at most 6% away of the optimal preemptive solution.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationPrinciples and Practice of Constraint Programming - 21st International Conference, CP 2015, Proceedings
    EditorsGilles Pesant
    PublisherSpringer Verlag
    Pages574-591
    Number of pages18
    ISBN (Print)9783319232188
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Event21st International Conference on the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, CP 2015 - Cork, Ireland
    Duration: 31 Aug 20154 Sept 2015

    Publication series

    NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
    Volume9255
    ISSN (Print)0302-9743
    ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

    Conference

    Conference21st International Conference on the Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming, CP 2015
    Country/TerritoryIreland
    CityCork
    Period31/08/154/09/15

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