JP3333908B2 - Timetable creation support system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a timetable creation support system in which automatic creation of subjects by automatic assignment and manual correction of automatically assigned timetables are mixed. Related to supporting systems.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A weekly timetable is created by assigning subjects to each frame defined by a day of the week and a time period. For example, a university generally has a plurality of departments, departments, and majors. In addition to the large number of subjects, restrictions on subject assignment (ex. Avoiding duplicate assignments of compulsory subjects of the same major / regenerative / class to the same subject, duplicate assignment of common subjects and compulsory subjects between faculties to the same subject) In addition to absolute constraints such as avoidance of repetition, avoidance of repeated use of the same classroom, and other constraints that include ambiguous elements that can be adjusted such as the date of instructor's desire to attend classes) are complex and diverse. For this reason, in many universities, timetable creation experts have traditionally created timetables by referring to a wide range of constraints and allocating subjects to each frame while negotiating with teachers to make adjustments. Was.

Conventionally, attempts have been made to build such an automatic system for creating timetables. However, when trying to build a system that completely covers a wide range of complicated and complex constraints, it is enormous to input only the constraints. It takes a lot of time to construct a system, and even if a system that completely covers these constraints is constructed, if the constraints are too complicated and too many, contradictions between the constraints may occur. As a result, the number of subjects that can be automatically assigned is reduced, so that the accuracy of automatic assignment is only low.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional manual timetable creation, the expert who can create the timetable is limited due to the skill required to create the timetable, and even when this expert creates the timetable, the conditions are limited. Because it is complex and diverse, it takes a lot of effort and time to create a timetable.In addition, it is relatively quick to assign priority while considering which conditions are assigned, and in the process of creating many subjects, such as efficiently assigning many subjects Since there is no means for recording the ingenuity obtained as a result of trial and error, it is difficult to pass on expert know-how. In addition, although the timetable created within a limited period is not always the best one, creating a timetable of multiple patterns to be compared for verifying the completeness of the timetable requires an enormous amount of time. Since it takes time, it is virtually impossible to verify the perfection.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and it has been made possible to automate most of the timetable creation and to manually correct an assigned part whose constraints are relatively ambiguous. In this way, timetable creation time is reduced, work load is reduced, and accuracy is improved.In addition, all subjects are divided into multiple groups, and automatic correction can be performed after automatic assignment for each group, and the assignment accuracy for each group is improved. The accuracy of the timetable is improved by sequentially completing the timetable in stages while increasing the accuracy, and the order of application of the constraints / conditions is newly set from the time and stage with the lower accuracy, and the automatic assignment is re-executed, so that the overall By improving the accuracy and storing the history of automatic creation of timetables, it is possible to inherit the know-how of timetable creation once established, and It is possible to reduce the workload and reduce the workload, save the timetable data created up to an arbitrary point in time, and re-execute automatic assignment in a different order of application of constraints and conditions that goes back to a predetermined point in time By doing this, you can easily create timetables for multiple patterns, verify the completeness of the timetable, and exclude subjects for which assignment to frames has been finalized from the assignment target when re-executing automatic assignment. The processing speed and accuracy are improved by repeating the automatic assignment to only undecided subjects while narrowing down the subjects. Also, multi-display of partially enlarged / reduced display images of the timetable and subjects between partially enlarged / reduced images Indication of whether the assignment can be moved, whether the movement of the subject whose assignment has been confirmed is not possible, and re-executing the subject whose assignment has been confirmed A timetable creation support system that supports the user's input operation and has good operability by displaying the advanceable display of the immovable state in the future by manually correcting other frames in the state of prohibition and no movable frame candidate exists For the purpose of providing.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a timetable creation support system for inputting data for classifying a subject into a plurality of groups, and for classifying the subject based on the classification data input by the means. Means for classifying into a plurality of groups, means for setting the order in which timetables should be created in steps for each group classified by the means, restrictions on subject assignment in each group, and the restrictions Means for setting the order of application, and, in the order of creation set by the means, the timetable to which the subjects of the group up to the previous stage have been allocated, Means for automatically assigning the subject of the current group according to the order of application of the condition, and automatic assignment of one group is completed,
Means for enabling manual correction of the automatic assignment of the one group of subjects before shifting to the next stage of automatic assignment.

[0007] In addition to the first invention, the timetable creation support system according to the second invention further includes data for classifying subjects into a plurality of groups, constraints for automatic assignment set in each creation stage, and an order of application of the constraints. And a means for storing a history of automatic assignment at each creation stage.

A timetable creation support system according to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first or second aspect, includes means for resetting, in one creation stage, automatic assignment constraints and application order of the constraints, Means for re-executing automatic assignment in accordance with the set constraints and the order of application of the constraints.

A timetable creation support system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first or second aspect, means for determining the assignment of the subject assigned to the frame and displaying the assignment of the subject for which the assignment has been determined. And means for performing the operation.

[0010]

[0011]

A timetable creation support system according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to any one of the first to fourth aspects, further comprises, when manually correcting the automatically assigned predetermined subject, another timetable candidate which is a movement destination candidate. Means for displaying whether or not the predetermined subject can be moved to a frame, and the destination of the predetermined item in the case where the subject assigned to the frame of the destination candidate in which the non-movement is displayed is temporarily moved to another frame. Means for displaying whether or not future movement to a candidate frame is possible.

[0013]

[0014]

According to the timetable creation support system of the first invention, when data for classifying subjects into a plurality of groups, a creation order of each group, a constraint condition of automatic assignment in each group, and an application order of the constraint condition are input, The courses of the current stage group are automatically assigned to the timetable to which the subjects of the group up to all stages have been assigned, according to the constraints set for the current stage group and the application order of these constraints, and the subjects are automatically assigned. To allow the user to manually move the subject to the timetable assigned to the user, and to create the timetable step by step in the set creation order. As a result, the timetable creation time is reduced, the burden of the timetable creation work is reduced, and the accuracy of automatic assignment is further improved.

A timetable creation support system according to a second aspect of the present invention stores a history of automatic assignment at each stage, enables inheritance of know-how of timetable creation once established, shortens timetable creation time, and further reduces timetable creation. Reduce the burden of work.

The timetable creation support system according to the third aspect of the present invention re-executes the timetable creation by resetting the constraints and the application order at each creation stage, thereby improving the allocation accuracy.

In the timetable creation support system according to the fourth invention, the assignment that has been determined is displayed by an icon, a change in display color, or the like on the subject for which the allocation to the frame has been determined, thereby improving the operability during manual correction. Let it.

[0018]

[0019]

A timetable creation support system according to a fifth aspect of the present invention provides a method for manually moving a subject, in a state where there is no movable frame, and moving any of the subjects assigned to the immovable frame. Indicates the state of whether or not the object can be moved, thereby improving the operability and the assignment accuracy.

[0021]

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a timetable creation support system of the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as the present system). In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a setting / input means such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a pen for setting or inputting various data and instructions, and a classification data input means 11 for inputting data for classifying subjects into groups (hereinafter, referred to as sections). Creation order setting means 12 for inputting the order of the creation stages (phases) of each section in the step-by-section timetable creation, constraints on automatic assignment (specific examples will be described later), and the order of application of these constraints Constraint / application order setting means 13 to be set at the beginning of the timetable creation, at each phase, or at the time of re-executing the automatic assignment retroactively, and also for moving the automatically assigned subjects to another frame at the time of manual correction. Of automatic assignment correction means 14.

Further, the setting / input means 1 includes a subject classification command, an automatic assignment execution command, a re-execution command for automatic assignment going back in time (or a phase), and a previously created timetable data Save or clear instruction,
Instructions to determine assignment to frames, instructions to save the history of automatic assignment, instructions to display various operation screens (condition setting, manual correction, restriction condition input screen, etc.), existing timetable data (day / time limit of each frame and each frame) This is a means for inputting the subject to be assigned to). The subject classification means 2 classifies the subjects into a plurality of sections according to the classification data input from the classification data input means 11.

Also, in FIG. 3, according to the constraint conditions of automatic assignment set by the constraint order / application order setting means 13 and the application order of the constraint conditions, the subjects of the section in the creation order set by the creation order setting means 12 are displayed. The history storage means 4 is an automatic allocation means for allocating to each frame. The history storage means 4 stores, as a database 5, a history of the automatic allocation for each completed phase, together with the data of the applied constraints and the order of application and the set order of the phases. Then, the timetable data created by the automatic assignment and manual correction for each phase (or up to a predetermined time) is stored in the timetable data storage unit 6 so that it can be used in the next fiscal year. Enables creation of multiple timetable patterns in the order of application.

Further, the display control means 7 controls the display of various operation screens such as a timetable image of the week, an enlarged image of all the frames of one day of the week, and a reduced image of all the frames of the week on the LCD 8, and displays the images on the frames. For the courses for which assignments have been confirmed, for example, icons indicating the confirmed courses are displayed, display of the confirmed courses is reversed, display colors are changed, and the courses for which assignments have been confirmed are manually corrected. Display a warning message when the In addition,
In the present embodiment, the case where the warning message is displayed on the screen has been described. However, the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained even with a configuration in which the warning message is output by voice.

Next, the procedure for creating a timetable of the system of the present invention will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 2 and the operation screens shown in FIGS. 6 shows a timetable scheduling screen, FIG. 7 shows a control screen, FIG. 8 shows an automatic creation screen, FIG. 9 shows a condition setting operation screen, and FIG. 10 shows a phase rerun screen. The system of the present invention does not automate the assignment of 100% of subjects, but automatically assigns 70 to 90% of subjects by setting constraints that are considered to have high accuracy of automatic assignment, and then automatically assigns the constraints. The inconsistency of the subjects that were not allocated is manually moved or allocated, and the timetable created by the automatic allocation is corrected to increase the accuracy to 100%.

Further, in the system of the present invention, the subjects are classified into a plurality of sections, and the timetable is created stepwise while increasing the allocation accuracy of each section to 100% by combining automatic allocation and manual correction. . As shown in the upper half of FIG. 2, when subjects are classified into a plurality of sections (for example, language, physical education, qualifications, and specialty) and the automatic assignment is performed collectively, a single assignment accuracy of each section is reduced to 90%. As a percentage, the accuracy of the previous section affects the accuracy of the later section, so the combined accuracy of the final specialty course drops to 66%. Therefore, in the system of the present invention, as shown in the lower half of FIG. 2, a timetable is created stepwise in section units while manually correcting the accuracy of automatic allocation of each section to 100%.

The user inputs data for classifying subjects into a plurality of sections and the order of creation of each section by the setting / input means 1, and selects from preset conditions on the condition setting screen of FIG. And the constraints
When the application order of the constraint conditions is set and the automatic assignment is instructed on the control screen of FIG. 7 and the automatic creation screen of FIG. 9,
First, the automatic assignment means 3 automatically assigns the subjects (the language subjects in FIG. 2) of the section in the first preparation stage to each frame, and makes the assignment of subjects inconsistent with the conditions undetermined.
Automatically create a timetable for the creation stage. It is also possible to manually assign the subject for which the teacher is to be determined and the subject for which the day of the week and the time limit are to be determined before the automatic assignment, and to determine the assignment.

The constraint conditions to be set are the same teacher setting for the same frame, the desired date of attending the teacher, the compulsory subject duplication setting, the setting not possible for each meeting (time limit that cannot be set by holding a meeting), and the setting not possible for each SS (ex. The physical education subjects are not set to the final time limit), MAX within one frame (upper limit of the number of subjects set to one frame),
Attendance day MAX (maximum number of days to attend in one week), 1
Timed attendance MAX (upper limit of the number of attendances for one timed lesson per week),
Classroom overlap setting, non-continuous subjects (ex. Language subjects are not set after physical education subjects), subjects that cannot be set for the same frame, subjects that cannot be set for the same day, attendance on the same day MAX (upper limit of the number of attendances on the same day), Consecutive course setting (Courses offered continuously)
And so on. A plurality of groups can be set for combinations of the constraints selected from these and the application order.

Next, when the user sets a new constraint condition and an application order for an unassigned subject excluding subjects for which assignment has been confirmed, the automatic assignment means 3
Re-executes the automatic assignment, and the accuracy of the automatic assignment increases each time the re-execution is performed. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for narrowing down the subjects to be automatically allocated as described above. When the user selects a remaining unassigned subject by repeating such re-execution, the destination candidate frame that can move the subject and the non-movable frame are indicated by color display or the like. The selected undetermined subjects are moved to a movable frame, and the automatically created timetable assignment accuracy is manually corrected to 100%.

At this time, the display control means 7 clearly indicates the assignment determination by displaying an icon indicating the assignment determination for the subject for which the assignment has been determined, inverting the display of the subject, or changing the display color. Further, the display control means 7 displays a warning message when a correction is made to the subject for which the assignment has been determined at the time of manual correction.

The subjects of the section of the second preparation stage (FIG. 2)
In the physical education subject), the automatic assignment means 3 automatically assigns the subject to the timetable in which the assignment of the language subject is completed and the assignment accuracy is 100%, and the automatic assignment is performed in the same manner as in the section of the first creation stage. The rerun and manual correction increase the accuracy to 100% in the assignment. Similarly,
Automatically assigning the subjects (qualified subjects and specialized subjects in FIG. 2) of the sections in the third and fourth creation stages and creating a timetable by manual correction are performed in stages, as shown in the timetable organization screen of FIG. A weekly timetable is created.

In order to inherit the know-how for creating the timetable created as described above in the next fiscal year, the system of the present invention uses data for classifying subjects into a plurality of sections, section creation order, constraints, and constraints. The history of the step-by-step timetable creation including the application order of the application is stored as the database 5. When creating a timetable for the following year, it is very rare that all courses offered are changed every year.
The user can call the history of the timetable creation of the previous year from the database 5, and can create the timetable using the stored data for the part that has not been changed.

Further, in the system of the present invention, data indicating the order of creation of the section into which the subject is classified is recorded in association with the subject to be processed including automatic / manual. Therefore, when the user instructs the re-execution of the timetable creation going back to the creation stage on the phase rerun screen shown in FIG. 10, the data relating to the assignment of the subject at the stage backed up is initialized based on the data indicating the creation order. At the same time, the data of the related file of the subject is returned to the state at the stage of going back.
With this function, in the system of the present invention, timetable creation can be re-executed any number of times, and it is possible to improve the accuracy of the timetable by repeating the creation while searching for the types of constraints and the order of application of the automatic assignment.

Further, by storing the data of the timetable once created up to the predetermined stage in the timetable data storage section 6, the timetable can be created again by going back through the stages as described above.
If the data of the timetable created by the re-execution is stored in another directory of the timetable data storage unit 6, it becomes possible to create a timetable of a plurality of patterns.

The system of the present invention employs an operation screen layout for improving operability during manual correction. For example, FIG. 4 shows an example of the layout,
On the upper knitting screen equivalent to the timetable knitting screen in FIG. 6 described above, when the user clicks “Month (day)” with the mouse, as shown in the middle part of FIG. The frame is enlarged and displayed on the entire screen, and a larger number of subjects assigned to each frame are displayed on the enlarged frame than at the top. Similarly, in the upper knitting screen, when the user clicks “I (timed)” with the mouse, FIG.
As shown in the lower part, the frames of the I period from Monday to Saturday are enlarged and displayed. The user can move the subject from frame to frame in a state where the user is displayed in an enlarged manner and can view details of the assigned subject.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the layout.
As shown in the middle section, a sub-screen displaying reduced images of all the frames of the week is multi-displayed on a main screen in which the frames of the I-IV period of "Monday" are enlarged and displayed. This allows the user to manually move the subject to be moved to another frame on the same day of the week, and also to move from the frame on the main screen to the frame on the sub-screen. Note that the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained even if the weekly reduced image displayed on the sub screen is an image excluding the day of the week or the time limit displayed in an enlarged manner.

If the destination candidate of the undetermined subject selected by the user at the time of manual correction is in the state of a bouncing state of zero, the system of the present invention selects the assigned subject from the immovable frames. By moving to another frame, the best frame candidate at the destination where the unselected subject selected by the user can be moved, for example, all the subjects of the instructor in charge of the selected subject are selected. Obtained by simulation using the total allocation method once cleared, and further displayed
In the future , when the control unit 7 temporarily moves the subject of the frame candidate determined as the best destination in the simulation to another frame, the state of the movement possibility as viewed from the ball-throwing subject is indicated by color display or the like. The user refers to the displayed future state and releases the immovable state of the immovable frame, and then can move the initially selected undetermined subject to the movable frame.

Furthermore, if an arithmetic element having a sufficiently high processing speed is used in the system of the present invention, the timetable data already created manually or by another system is input, and the existing timetable data is used as the final answer. It is also possible to simulate and calculate the optimal solution of the automatic assignment constraint conditions and the application order of the constraint conditions by a brute force method. At this time, the system of the present invention applies the following formula, and also calculates the inversely calculated constraints and the creation accuracy in the application order. Creation accuracy = (number of subjects whose settings by automatic creation are the same as the existing timetable / number of subjects to be automatically created) x 100

In this embodiment, the case has been described in which the timetable is created step by step in which the subjects are classified into sections, but the timetable creation log is saved, the automatic assignment is re-executed from a predetermined time, and the assignment is determined. Cleared courses, display warning message at the time of manual correction for fixed courses, re-execute automatic assignment by narrowing down the courses without fixed courses, other layouts of operation screens, processing for bobbin status, constraints and application order In the reverse calculation, the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained even when the automatic assignment is performed collectively.

[0041]

As described above, the system of the present invention automates most of the timetable creation, and also allows manual assignment of assigned parts whose constraints are relatively ambiguous. The burden is reduced and the accuracy is improved, and all subjects are divided into multiple groups. Completion improves the accuracy of the timetable, and further sets the order of application of constraints / conditions from low-accuracy points / stages and re-executes automatic assignment, improving the overall accuracy and improving the timetable Since the history of automatic creation is saved, the know-how of creating a timetable once established can be inherited, shortening the creation time and reducing the work load, and up to any time Saves the created timetable data and enables re-execution of automatic assignment in a different order of application of constraints / conditions, going back to a predetermined point in time, making it easy to create timetables for multiple patterns and completing the timetable Can be verified, and subjects that have been assigned to frames are excluded from assignment targets when automatic assignment is re-executed, and automatic assignments for only undetermined subjects are repeated while narrowing down the subjects of automatic assignment. Speed and accuracy have been improved, and multi-display of partially enlarged / reduced display images of the timetable and assignment of subjects between partially enlarged / reduced images are possible, and it is not possible to move subjects for which assignment has been confirmed , Prohibition of re-execution of the subject for which the assignment has been determined, and other frames in the state of a thrust where there are no movable frame candidates It is performed and the preceding display of future mobile Yes No state by manual correction exhibits the excellent effect that operability is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart (part 1) of creating a timetable according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart (part 2) of creating a timetable according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a screen display example (part 1) of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a screen display example (part 2) of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an example of an operation screen (timetable organization screen) of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of an operation screen (control screen) according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an example of an operation screen (condition setting screen) of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an example of an operation screen (automatic creation screen) of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an example of an operation screen of the present invention (phase rerun screen)
It is.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Setting / Input Means 11 Classification Data Input Means 12 Creation Order Setting Means 13 Constraint Conditions / Applied Order Setting Means 14 Automatic Assignment Correction Means 2 Subject Classification Means 3 Automatic Assignment Means 4 History Storage Means 5 Database 6 Timetable Data Storage 7 Display Control Means 8 LCD

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-5-324666 (JP, A) Fujiwara, Matsunishi, Goto, Kuromaru, "Timetable scheduling by local best priority search method with rounding function , Electronic Information Akira Otani et al., Production Planning Support System, Information Processing, Information Processing Corporation, November 15, 1992, Vol. 33, No. 11, p. 1342-1347 Yoshihiko Tanaka, AI program for timetable organization, Proc. Of the 36th IEICE Research Presentation Lecture Meeting, The Institute of System Control Information, May 20, 1992, Vol. 36, p. 283-284 (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/60 128 G06F 17/60 106 B23Q 41/08 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A timetable creation support system capable of automatically assigning subjects to frames of a timetable defined by a time period and manually correcting the automatically assigned subjects, wherein the subjects are assigned to a plurality of groups. Means for inputting data for classifying the subject, means for classifying subjects into a plurality of groups based on the classification data input by the means, and timetable for each group classified by the means, in units of groups. Means for setting a creation order to be created step by step; means for setting constraint conditions for subject assignment in each group and an application order of the constraint conditions; and grouping up to the previous stage in the creation order set by the means. The current stage group is assigned to the timetable to which the subject is assigned according to the assignment constraints set for the current stage group and the order of application of the constraints. Means for automatically allocating the subjects of the group, and means for enabling manual correction to the automatic assignment of the subjects of the one group before the automatic assignment of one group is completed and the process proceeds to the next stage of automatic assignment. A timetable creation support system characterized by comprising: 2. A means for storing data for classifying subjects into a plurality of groups, constraints of automatic assignment set at each creation stage, and a history of automatic assignment at each creation stage including an application order of the constraint condition. The timetable creation support system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. A means for resetting automatic assignment constraints and the order of application of the constraints in one creation stage, and re-executing automatic assignment according to the reset constraints and the order of application of the constraints. 3. The timetable creation support system according to claim 1, further comprising: 4. The timetable creation support system according to claim 1, further comprising: means for determining the assignment of the subject assigned to the frame, and means for displaying the determination of the assignment of the subject for which the assignment has been determined. 5. Automatically assigned predetermined subjects
When performing manual corrections, other frames that are
Means for displaying whether or not the predetermined subject can be moved;
The department assigned to the top candidate frame with
The predetermined item when the eyes are temporarily moved to another frame
Means for displaying whether or not a future move to the destination candidate frame is possible in the future . The timetable creation support system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising: