Resource-Optimal Scheduling Using Priced Timed Automata

In this paper, we show how the simple structure of the linear programs encountered during symbolic minimum-cost reachability analysis of priced timed automata can be exploited in order to substantially improve the performance of the current algorithm. The idea is rooted in duality of linear programs and we show that each encountered linear program can be reduced to the dual problem of an instance of the min-cost flow problem. Thus, we only need to solve instances of the much simpler min-cost flow problem during minimum-cost reachability analysis. Experimental results using Uppaal show a 70-80 percent performance gain. As a main application area, we show how to solve energy-optimal task graph scheduling problems using the framework of priced timed automata.