An intelligent simulation model to evaluate scheduling strategies in a steel company

Abstract

An embedded structure is selected to construct an intelligent simulation model. A framework is proposed so that both the event generator and expert system are controlled by a simulation mechanism. The expert system includes an inference engine and a knowledge base. When the simulation mechanism starts the inference engine, the inference engine reasons based on the system states. Then the system will process the events according to the inference results. An ‘intelligent entity’ simulates an entity with intelligence such as a ‘real’ server, manager or pilot. The SIMSCRIPT II.5 simulation language is used to illustrate how the proposed framework can be implemented in an example situation of harbour unloading by a steel company which needs to import coal when the capacity of the harbour is limited. Finally, possible future research directions are presented.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. GUNASEKARAN

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