Chapter 15. Repeated Planning

To make some planning entities immovable, simply add an entity SelectionFilter that returns true if an entity is movable and false if it is immovable.

public class MovableShiftAssignmentSelectionFilter implements SelectionFilter<ShiftAssignment> {

    public boolean accept(ScoreDirector scoreDirector, ShiftAssignment shiftAssignment) {
        ShiftDate shiftDate = shiftAssignment.getShift().getShiftDate();
        NurseRoster nurseRoster = (NurseRoster) scoreDirector.getWorkingSolution();
        return nurseRoster.getNurseRosterInfo().isInPlanningWindow(shiftDate);
    }

}

And configure it like this:

@PlanningEntity(movableEntitySelectionFilter = MovableShiftAssignmentSelectionFilter.class)
public class ShiftAssignment {
    ...
}

Replanning an existing plan can be very disruptive on the plan. If the plan affects humans (such as employees, drivers, …​), very disruptive changes are often undesirable. In such cases, nonvolatile replanning helps: the gain of changing a plan must be higher than the disruption it causes.

For example, in the Machine Reassignment example, the entity has both the planning variable machine and its original value originalMachine:

@PlanningEntity(...)
public class ProcessAssignment {

    private MrProcess process;
    private Machine originalMachine;
    private Machine machine;

    public Machine getOriginalMachine() {...}

    @PlanningVariable(...)
    public Machine getMachine() {...}

    public boolean isMoved() {
        return originalMachine != null && originalMachine != machine;
    }

    ...
}

During planning, the planning variable machine changes. By comparing it with the originalMachine, a change in plan can be penalized:

rule "processMoved"
    when
        ProcessAssignment(moved == true)
    then
        scoreHolder.addSoftConstraintMatch(kcontext, -1000);
end

The soft penalty of -1000 means that a better solution is only accepted if it improves the soft score for at least 1000 points per variable changed (or if it improves the hard score).

While the Solver is solving, an outside event might want to change one of the problem facts, for example an airplane is delayed and needs the runway at a later time. Do not change the problem fact instances used by the Solver while it is solving (from another thread or even in the same thread), as that will corrupt it. Instead, add a ProblemFactChange to the Solver which it will execute in the solver thread as soon as possible.

public interface Solver {

    ...

    boolean addProblemFactChange(ProblemFactChange problemFactChange);

    boolean isEveryProblemFactChangeProcessed();

    ...

}

public interface ProblemFactChange {

    void doChange(ScoreDirector scoreDirector);

}

Here’s an example:

    public void deleteComputer(final CloudComputer computer) {
        solver.addProblemFactChange(new ProblemFactChange() {
            public void doChange(ScoreDirector scoreDirector) {
                CloudBalance cloudBalance = (CloudBalance) scoreDirector.getWorkingSolution();
                // First remove the problem fact from all planning entities that use it
                for (CloudProcess process : cloudBalance.getProcessList()) {
                    if (ObjectUtils.equals(process.getComputer(), computer)) {
                        scoreDirector.beforeVariableChanged(process, "computer");
                        process.setComputer(null);
                        scoreDirector.afterVariableChanged(process, "computer");
                    }
                }
                // A SolutionCloner does not clone problem fact lists (such as computerList)
                // Shallow clone the computerList so only workingSolution is affected, not bestSolution or guiSolution
                cloudBalance.setComputerList(new ArrayList<CloudComputer>(cloudBalance.getComputerList()));
                // Next remove it the problem fact itself
                for (Iterator<CloudComputer> it = cloudBalance.getComputerList().iterator(); it.hasNext(); ) {
                    CloudComputer workingComputer = it.next();
                    if (ObjectUtils.equals(workingComputer, computer)) {
                        scoreDirector.beforeProblemFactRemoved(workingComputer);
                        it.remove(); // remove from list
                        scoreDirector.afterProblemFactRemoved(workingComputer);
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        });
    }

In essence, the Solver stops, runs the ProblemFactChange and restarts. This is a warm start because its initial solution is the adjusted best solution of the previous run. Each solver phase runs again. This implies the construction heuristic runs again, but because little or no planning variables are uninitialized (unless you have a nullable planning variable), it finishes much quicker than in a cold start.

Each configured Termination resets (both in solver and phase configuration), but a previous call to terminateEarly() is not undone. Normally however, you won’t configure any Termination (except in daemon mode), just call Solver.terminateEarly() when the results are needed. Alternatively, do configure a Termination and use the daemon mode in combination with BestSolutionChangedEvent as described below.

In real-time planning, it’s often useful to have a solver thread wait when it runs out of work, and immediately resume solving a problem once new problem fact changes are added. Putting the Solver in daemon mode has these effects:

To configure the daemon mode:

<solver>
  <daemon>true</daemon>
  ...
</solver>

Subscribe to the BestSolutionChangedEvent to process new best solutions found by the solver thread. A BestSolutionChangedEvent doesn’t guarantee that every ProblemFactChange has been processed already, nor that the solution is initialized and feasible. To ignore BestSolutionChangedEvents with such invalid solutions, do this:

    public void bestSolutionChanged(BestSolutionChangedEvent<CloudBalance> event) {
        // Ignore invalid solutions
        if (event.isEveryProblemFactChangeProcessed()
                && event.isNewBestSolutionInitialized()
                && event.getNewBestSolution().getScore().isFeasible()) {
            ...
        }
    }