An approach to the scheduling of wood harvesting machines

Abstract

An approach to the scheduling of wood harvesting machines is described in the paper. A multicriterial mathematical model with a large number of technical and technological constraints is presented. It is shown that the original problem of wood harvesting machines scheduling is reduced to a generalized traveling salesman problem. An algorithm for solving the problem based on a meta-heuristic algorithm of simulated annealing has been developed. The algorithm was used in decision support system for wood harvesting planning and management "Opti-Wood", developed by Opti-Soft company. The algorithm was numerically tested on several dozens of harvesting plans for a given road network in southern Karelia. A comparative analysis showed that the version with territorial clustering is more preferable, and can be used as a qualitative approximation for obtaining the initial state in this and other metaheuristic methods.