An Application of Simulated Annealing to Scheduling Army Unit Training

Automated scheduling of Army training can reduce the complexity of scheduling the many required training and nontraining activities for a unit and lead to better planning of training. The objective of the research described here was to develop a prototype program for applying a particular heuristic called simulated annealing to the scheduling of Army unit training. The report presents an analysis of scheduling needs in Army units and describes the simulated annealing approach to Army scheduling. The characteristics and operations of the implementing algorithm are detailed with the computer code as an Apprendix. The approach was judged as promising and warranting further research. Several augmentations of the current implementation of the simulation annealing approach are suggested. Keywords: Training scheduling, Unit training management, Automated scheduling, Automated training management.