Feedback control systems wherein the control loops are closed through a real-time network are called networked control systems （NCS）. The defining feature of an NCS is that information is exchanged using a network a...Feedback control systems wherein the control loops are closed through a real-time network are called networked control systems （NCS）. The defining feature of an NCS is that information is exchanged using a network among control system components. Two new concepts including long time delay and short time delay are proposed. The sensor is almost always clock driven. The controller or the actuator is either clock driven or event driven. Four possible driving modes of networked control systems are presented. The open loop mathematic models of networked control systems with long time delay are developed when the system is driven by anyone of the four different modes. The uniformed modeling method of networked control systems with long time delay is proposed. The simulation results are given in the end.展开更多
A new approach is proposed to analyze the settlement behavior for single pile embedded in layered soils. Firstly, soil layers surrounding pile shaft are simulated by using distributed Voigt model, and finite soil laye...A new approach is proposed to analyze the settlement behavior for single pile embedded in layered soils. Firstly, soil layers surrounding pile shaft are simulated by using distributed Voigt model, and finite soil layers under the pile end are assumed to be virtual soil-pile whose cross-section area is the same as that of the pile shaft. Then, by means of Laplace transform and impedance function transfer method to solve the static equilibrium equation of pile, the analytical solution of the displacement impedance fimction at the pile head is derived. Furthermore, the analytical solution of the settlement at the head of single pile is theoretically derived by virtue of convolution theorem. Based on these solutions, the influences of parameters of soil-pile system on the settlement behavior for single pile are analyzed. Also, comparison of the load-settlement response for two well-instrumented field tests in multilayered soils is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach. It can be noted that the presented solution can be used to calculate the settlement of single pile for the preliminary design of pile foundation.展开更多
A pre-selection space time model was proposed to estimate the traffic condition at poor-data-detector,especially non-detector locations.The space time model is better to integrate the spatial and temporal information ...A pre-selection space time model was proposed to estimate the traffic condition at poor-data-detector,especially non-detector locations.The space time model is better to integrate the spatial and temporal information comprehensibly.Firstly,the influencing factors of the "cause nodes" were studied,and then the pre-selection "cause nodes" procedure which utilizes the Pearson correlation coefficient to evaluate the relevancy of the traffic data was introduced.Finally,only the most relevant data were collected to compose the space time model.The experimental results with the actual data demonstrate that the model performs better than other three models.展开更多
As one of the basic inventory cost models, the （Q, τ）inventory cost model of dual suppliers with random procurement lead time is mostly formulated by using the concepts of ＂effective lead time＂ and ＂lead time de...As one of the basic inventory cost models, the （Q, τ）inventory cost model of dual suppliers with random procurement lead time is mostly formulated by using the concepts of ＂effective lead time＂ and ＂lead time demand＂, which may lead to an imprecise inventory cost. Through the real-time statistic of the inventory quantities, this paper considers the precise （Q, τ） inventory cost model of dual supplier procurement by using an infinitesimal dividing method. The traditional modeling method of the inventory cost for dual supplier procurement includes complex procedures. To reduce the complexity effectively, the presented method investigates the statistics properties in real-time of the inventory quantities with the application of the infinitesimal dividing method. It is proved that the optimal holding and shortage costs of dual supplier procurement are less than those of single supplier procurement respectively. With the assumption that both suppliers have the same distribution of lead times, the convexity of the cost function per unit time is proved. So the optimal solution can be easily obtained by applying the classical convex optimization methods. The numerical examples are given to verify the main conclusions.展开更多
This paper studies the problem of the space station short-term mission planning, which aims to allocate the executing time of missions effectively, schedule the corresponding resources reasonably and arrange the time ...This paper studies the problem of the space station short-term mission planning, which aims to allocate the executing time of missions effectively, schedule the corresponding resources reasonably and arrange the time of the astronauts properly. A domain model is developed by using the ontology theory to describe the concepts, constraints and relations of the planning domain formally, abstractly and normatively. A method based on time iteration is adopted to solve the short-term planning problem. Meanwhile, the resolving strategies are proposed to resolve different kinds of conflicts induced by the constraints of power, heat, resource, astronaut and relationship. The proposed approach is evaluated in a test case with fifteen missions, thirteen resources and three astronauts. The results show that the developed domain ontology model is reasonable, and the time iteration method using the proposed resolving strategies can successfully obtain the plan satisfying all considered constraints.展开更多
The problem of discrete-time model identification of industrial processes with time delay was investigated.An iterative and separable method is proposed to solve this problem,that is,the rational transfer function mod...The problem of discrete-time model identification of industrial processes with time delay was investigated.An iterative and separable method is proposed to solve this problem,that is,the rational transfer function model parameters and time delay are alternately fixed to estimate each other.The instrumental variable technique is applied to guarantee consistent estimation against measurement noise.A noteworthy merit of the proposed method is that it can handle fractional time delay estimation,compared to existing methods commonly assuming that the time delay is an integer multiple of the sampling interval.The identifiability analysis for time delay is addressed and correspondingly,some guidelines are provided for practical implementation of the proposed method.Numerical and experimental examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.展开更多
Referring to the 1 248 survey data of rural population in 14 provinces of China, the influencing factors of trip time choice were analyzed. Based on the basic theory of disaggregate model and its modelling method, nin...Referring to the 1 248 survey data of rural population in 14 provinces of China, the influencing factors of trip time choice were analyzed. Based on the basic theory of disaggregate model and its modelling method, nine grades were selected as the alternatives of trip time, the variables affecting time choice and the method getting their values were determined, and a multinomial logit (MNL) model was developed. Another 1 200 trip data of rural population were selected to testify the model's validity. The result shows that the maximum absolute error of each period between calculated value and statistic is 3.6%, so MNL model has high calculation accuracy.展开更多
Chronic hepatitis B infection is a major health problem,with approximately 350 million virus carriers worldwide.In Africa,about 30%-60% of children and 60%-100% of adults have
Fuzzy sets theory cannot describe the neutrality degreeof data, which has largely limited the objectivity of fuzzy time seriesin uncertain data forecasting. With this regard, a multi-factor highorderintuitionistic fuz...Fuzzy sets theory cannot describe the neutrality degreeof data, which has largely limited the objectivity of fuzzy time seriesin uncertain data forecasting. With this regard, a multi-factor highorderintuitionistic fuzzy time series forecasting model is built. Inthe new model, a fuzzy clustering algorithm is used to get unequalintervals, and a more objective technique for ascertaining membershipand non-membership functions of the intuitionistic fuzzy setis proposed. On these bases, forecast rules based on multidimensionalintuitionistic fuzzy modus ponens inference are established.Finally, contrast experiments on the daily mean temperature ofBeijing are carried out, which show that the novel model has aclear advantage of improving the forecast accuracy.展开更多
In order to optimize the embedded system implementation for Ethernet-based computer numerical control （CNC） system, it is very necessary to establish the performance analysis model and further adopt the codesign met...In order to optimize the embedded system implementation for Ethernet-based computer numerical control （CNC） system, it is very necessary to establish the performance analysis model and further adopt the codesign method from the control, communication and computing perspectives. On the basis of analyzing real-time Ethemet, system architecture, time characteristic parameters of control-loop ere, a performance analysis model for real-time Ethemet-based CNC system was proposed, which is able to include the timing effects caused by the implementation platform in the simulation. The key for establishing the model is accomplished by designing the error analysis module and the controller nodes. Under the restraint of CPU resource and communication bandwidth, the experiment with a case study was conducted, and the results show that if the deadline miss ratio of data packets is 0.2%, then the percentage error is 1.105%. The proposed model can be used at several stages of CNC system development.展开更多
Remaining useful life(RUL) prediction is one of the most crucial elements in prognostics and health management(PHM). Aiming at the imperfect prior information, this paper proposes an RUL prediction method based on a n...Remaining useful life(RUL) prediction is one of the most crucial elements in prognostics and health management(PHM). Aiming at the imperfect prior information, this paper proposes an RUL prediction method based on a nonlinear random coefficient regression(RCR) model with fusing failure time data.Firstly, some interesting natures of parameters estimation based on the nonlinear RCR model are given. Based on these natures,the failure time data can be fused as the prior information reasonably. Specifically, the fixed parameters are calculated by the field degradation data of the evaluated equipment and the prior information of random coefficient is estimated with fusing the failure time data of congeneric equipment. Then, the prior information of the random coefficient is updated online under the Bayesian framework, the probability density function(PDF) of the RUL with considering the limitation of the failure threshold is performed. Finally, two case studies are used for experimental verification. Compared with the traditional Bayesian method, the proposed method can effectively reduce the influence of imperfect prior information and improve the accuracy of RUL prediction.展开更多
Modeling technology has been introduced into software testing field. However, how to carry through the testing modeling effectively is still a difficulty. Based on combination of simulation modeling technology and emb...Modeling technology has been introduced into software testing field. However, how to carry through the testing modeling effectively is still a difficulty. Based on combination of simulation modeling technology and embedded real-time software testing method, the process of simulation testing modeling is studied first. And then, the supporting environment of simulation testing modeling is put forward. Furthermore, an approach of embedded real-time software simulation testing modeling including modeling of cross-linked equipments of system under testing （SUT）, test case, testing scheduling, and testing system service is brought forward. Finally, the formalized description and execution system of testing models are given, with which we can realize real-time, closed loop, mad automated system testing for embedded real-time software.展开更多
Traditional studies on potential yield mainly referred to attainable yield： the maximum yield which could be reached by a crop in a given environment. The new concept of crop yield under average climate conditions wa...Traditional studies on potential yield mainly referred to attainable yield： the maximum yield which could be reached by a crop in a given environment. The new concept of crop yield under average climate conditions was defined in this paper, which was affected by advancement of science and technology. Based on the new concept of crop yield, the time series techniques relying on past yield data was employed to set up a forecasting model. The model was tested by using average grain yields of Liaoning Province in China from 1949 to 2005. The testing combined dynamic n-choosing and micro tendency rectification, and an average forecasting error was 1.24%. In the trend line of yield change, and then a yield turning point might occur, in which case the inflexion model was used to solve the problem of yield turn point.展开更多
Parameter estimation of the attributed scattering center(ASC) model is significant for automatic target recognition(ATR). Sparse representation based parameter estimation methods have developed rapidly. Construction o...Parameter estimation of the attributed scattering center(ASC) model is significant for automatic target recognition(ATR). Sparse representation based parameter estimation methods have developed rapidly. Construction of the separable dictionary is a key issue for sparse representation technology. A compressive time-domain dictionary(TD) for ASC model is presented. Two-dimensional frequency domain responses of the ASC are produced and transformed into the time domain. Then these time domain responses are cutoff and stacked into vectors. These vectored time-domain responses are amalgamated to form the TD. Compared with the traditional frequency-domain dictionary(FD), the TD is a matrix that is quite spare and can markedly reduce the data size of the dictionary. Based on the basic TD construction method, we present four extended TD construction methods, which are available for different applications. In the experiments, the performance of the TD, including the basic model and the extended models, has been firstly analyzed in comparison with the FD. Secondly, an example of parameter estimation from SAR synthetic aperture radar(SAR) measurements of a target collected in an anechoic room is exhibited. Finally, a sparse image reconstruction example is from two apart apertures. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed TD.展开更多
A robust stabilization problem is considered for time delay nonlinear discrete-time systems based on T-S fuzzy model. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such controllers is given through Lyapuno...A robust stabilization problem is considered for time delay nonlinear discrete-time systems based on T-S fuzzy model. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such controllers is given through Lyapunov stability theorem. And it is further shown that this condition is equivalent to the solvability of a certain linear matrix inequality, which can be solved easily by using the LMI toolbox of Matlab. At last, an illustrative example of truck-trailer is presented to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.展开更多
Based on the idea that modules are independent of machines, different combinations of modules and machines result in different configurations and the system performances differ under different configurations, a kind o...Based on the idea that modules are independent of machines, different combinations of modules and machines result in different configurations and the system performances differ under different configurations, a kind of cyclic reconfigurable flow shops are proposed for the new manufacturing paradigm-reconfigurable manufacturing system. The cyclic reconfigurable flow shop is modeled as a timed event graph. The optimal configuration is defined as the one under which the cyclic reconfigurable flow shop functions with the minimum cycle time and the minimum number of pallets. The optimal configuration, the minimum cycle time and the minimum number of pallets can be obtained in two steps.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60474076)Natural Science Foundationof Jiangxi Province, China (2007GZS0899)Scientific Research Foundation of Jiangxi Provincial Education Department, China(GJJ08238).
文摘Feedback control systems wherein the control loops are closed through a real-time network are called networked control systems （NCS）. The defining feature of an NCS is that information is exchanged using a network among control system components. Two new concepts including long time delay and short time delay are proposed. The sensor is almost always clock driven. The controller or the actuator is either clock driven or event driven. Four possible driving modes of networked control systems are presented. The open loop mathematic models of networked control systems with long time delay are developed when the system is driven by anyone of the four different modes. The uniformed modeling method of networked control systems with long time delay is proposed. The simulation results are given in the end.
基金Project(50879077) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘A new approach is proposed to analyze the settlement behavior for single pile embedded in layered soils. Firstly, soil layers surrounding pile shaft are simulated by using distributed Voigt model, and finite soil layers under the pile end are assumed to be virtual soil-pile whose cross-section area is the same as that of the pile shaft. Then, by means of Laplace transform and impedance function transfer method to solve the static equilibrium equation of pile, the analytical solution of the displacement impedance fimction at the pile head is derived. Furthermore, the analytical solution of the settlement at the head of single pile is theoretically derived by virtue of convolution theorem. Based on these solutions, the influences of parameters of soil-pile system on the settlement behavior for single pile are analyzed. Also, comparison of the load-settlement response for two well-instrumented field tests in multilayered soils is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach. It can be noted that the presented solution can be used to calculate the settlement of single pile for the preliminary design of pile foundation.
基金Project(D101106049710005) supported by the Beijing Science Foundation Program,ChinaProject(61104164) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation,China
文摘A pre-selection space time model was proposed to estimate the traffic condition at poor-data-detector,especially non-detector locations.The space time model is better to integrate the spatial and temporal information comprehensibly.Firstly,the influencing factors of the "cause nodes" were studied,and then the pre-selection "cause nodes" procedure which utilizes the Pearson correlation coefficient to evaluate the relevancy of the traffic data was introduced.Finally,only the most relevant data were collected to compose the space time model.The experimental results with the actual data demonstrate that the model performs better than other three models.
基金supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(863 Program)(2007AA04Z102)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(6087407160574077).
文摘As one of the basic inventory cost models, the （Q, τ）inventory cost model of dual suppliers with random procurement lead time is mostly formulated by using the concepts of ＂effective lead time＂ and ＂lead time demand＂, which may lead to an imprecise inventory cost. Through the real-time statistic of the inventory quantities, this paper considers the precise （Q, τ） inventory cost model of dual supplier procurement by using an infinitesimal dividing method. The traditional modeling method of the inventory cost for dual supplier procurement includes complex procedures. To reduce the complexity effectively, the presented method investigates the statistics properties in real-time of the inventory quantities with the application of the infinitesimal dividing method. It is proved that the optimal holding and shortage costs of dual supplier procurement are less than those of single supplier procurement respectively. With the assumption that both suppliers have the same distribution of lead times, the convexity of the cost function per unit time is proved. So the optimal solution can be easily obtained by applying the classical convex optimization methods. The numerical examples are given to verify the main conclusions.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(11402295)the Science Project of National University of Defense Technology(JC14-01-05)the Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China(2015JJ3020)
文摘This paper studies the problem of the space station short-term mission planning, which aims to allocate the executing time of missions effectively, schedule the corresponding resources reasonably and arrange the time of the astronauts properly. A domain model is developed by using the ontology theory to describe the concepts, constraints and relations of the planning domain formally, abstractly and normatively. A method based on time iteration is adopted to solve the short-term planning problem. Meanwhile, the resolving strategies are proposed to resolve different kinds of conflicts induced by the constraints of power, heat, resource, astronaut and relationship. The proposed approach is evaluated in a test case with fifteen missions, thirteen resources and three astronauts. The results show that the developed domain ontology model is reasonable, and the time iteration method using the proposed resolving strategies can successfully obtain the plan satisfying all considered constraints.
文摘The problem of discrete-time model identification of industrial processes with time delay was investigated.An iterative and separable method is proposed to solve this problem,that is,the rational transfer function model parameters and time delay are alternately fixed to estimate each other.The instrumental variable technique is applied to guarantee consistent estimation against measurement noise.A noteworthy merit of the proposed method is that it can handle fractional time delay estimation,compared to existing methods commonly assuming that the time delay is an integer multiple of the sampling interval.The identifiability analysis for time delay is addressed and correspondingly,some guidelines are provided for practical implementation of the proposed method.Numerical and experimental examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
基金Project(51178158) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProjects(2010HGZY0010, 2011HGBZ0936) supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China
文摘Referring to the 1 248 survey data of rural population in 14 provinces of China, the influencing factors of trip time choice were analyzed. Based on the basic theory of disaggregate model and its modelling method, nine grades were selected as the alternatives of trip time, the variables affecting time choice and the method getting their values were determined, and a multinomial logit (MNL) model was developed. Another 1 200 trip data of rural population were selected to testify the model's validity. The result shows that the maximum absolute error of each period between calculated value and statistic is 3.6%, so MNL model has high calculation accuracy.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundationof China,No.60774036the NSF of Hubei Province 2008CDA063
文摘Chronic hepatitis B infection is a major health problem,with approximately 350 million virus carriers worldwide.In Africa,about 30%-60% of children and 60%-100% of adults have
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61309022)
文摘Fuzzy sets theory cannot describe the neutrality degreeof data, which has largely limited the objectivity of fuzzy time seriesin uncertain data forecasting. With this regard, a multi-factor highorderintuitionistic fuzzy time series forecasting model is built. Inthe new model, a fuzzy clustering algorithm is used to get unequalintervals, and a more objective technique for ascertaining membershipand non-membership functions of the intuitionistic fuzzy setis proposed. On these bases, forecast rules based on multidimensionalintuitionistic fuzzy modus ponens inference are established.Finally, contrast experiments on the daily mean temperature ofBeijing are carried out, which show that the novel model has aclear advantage of improving the forecast accuracy.
基金Projects(50875090,50905063) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(2009AA04Z111) supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China+2 种基金Project(20090460769) supported by China Postdoctoral Science FoundationProject(2011ZM0070) supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in ChinaProject(S2011010001155) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province,China
文摘In order to optimize the embedded system implementation for Ethernet-based computer numerical control （CNC） system, it is very necessary to establish the performance analysis model and further adopt the codesign method from the control, communication and computing perspectives. On the basis of analyzing real-time Ethemet, system architecture, time characteristic parameters of control-loop ere, a performance analysis model for real-time Ethemet-based CNC system was proposed, which is able to include the timing effects caused by the implementation platform in the simulation. The key for establishing the model is accomplished by designing the error analysis module and the controller nodes. Under the restraint of CPU resource and communication bandwidth, the experiment with a case study was conducted, and the results show that if the deadline miss ratio of data packets is 0.2%, then the percentage error is 1.105%. The proposed model can be used at several stages of CNC system development.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (61703410,61873175,62073336,61873273,61773386,61922089)。
文摘Remaining useful life(RUL) prediction is one of the most crucial elements in prognostics and health management(PHM). Aiming at the imperfect prior information, this paper proposes an RUL prediction method based on a nonlinear random coefficient regression(RCR) model with fusing failure time data.Firstly, some interesting natures of parameters estimation based on the nonlinear RCR model are given. Based on these natures,the failure time data can be fused as the prior information reasonably. Specifically, the fixed parameters are calculated by the field degradation data of the evaluated equipment and the prior information of random coefficient is estimated with fusing the failure time data of congeneric equipment. Then, the prior information of the random coefficient is updated online under the Bayesian framework, the probability density function(PDF) of the RUL with considering the limitation of the failure threshold is performed. Finally, two case studies are used for experimental verification. Compared with the traditional Bayesian method, the proposed method can effectively reduce the influence of imperfect prior information and improve the accuracy of RUL prediction.
文摘Modeling technology has been introduced into software testing field. However, how to carry through the testing modeling effectively is still a difficulty. Based on combination of simulation modeling technology and embedded real-time software testing method, the process of simulation testing modeling is studied first. And then, the supporting environment of simulation testing modeling is put forward. Furthermore, an approach of embedded real-time software simulation testing modeling including modeling of cross-linked equipments of system under testing （SUT）, test case, testing scheduling, and testing system service is brought forward. Finally, the formalized description and execution system of testing models are given, with which we can realize real-time, closed loop, mad automated system testing for embedded real-time software.
基金Supported by Agricultural Poor-helping Monopoly of Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Science (40641002)
文摘Traditional studies on potential yield mainly referred to attainable yield： the maximum yield which could be reached by a crop in a given environment. The new concept of crop yield under average climate conditions was defined in this paper, which was affected by advancement of science and technology. Based on the new concept of crop yield, the time series techniques relying on past yield data was employed to set up a forecasting model. The model was tested by using average grain yields of Liaoning Province in China from 1949 to 2005. The testing combined dynamic n-choosing and micro tendency rectification, and an average forecasting error was 1.24%. In the trend line of yield change, and then a yield turning point might occur, in which case the inflexion model was used to solve the problem of yield turn point.
基金Project(NCET-11-0866)supported by Education Ministry's new Century Excellent Talents Supporting Plan,China
文摘Parameter estimation of the attributed scattering center(ASC) model is significant for automatic target recognition(ATR). Sparse representation based parameter estimation methods have developed rapidly. Construction of the separable dictionary is a key issue for sparse representation technology. A compressive time-domain dictionary(TD) for ASC model is presented. Two-dimensional frequency domain responses of the ASC are produced and transformed into the time domain. Then these time domain responses are cutoff and stacked into vectors. These vectored time-domain responses are amalgamated to form the TD. Compared with the traditional frequency-domain dictionary(FD), the TD is a matrix that is quite spare and can markedly reduce the data size of the dictionary. Based on the basic TD construction method, we present four extended TD construction methods, which are available for different applications. In the experiments, the performance of the TD, including the basic model and the extended models, has been firstly analyzed in comparison with the FD. Secondly, an example of parameter estimation from SAR synthetic aperture radar(SAR) measurements of a target collected in an anechoic room is exhibited. Finally, a sparse image reconstruction example is from two apart apertures. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed TD.
基金Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of P. R. China (60274009)
文摘A robust stabilization problem is considered for time delay nonlinear discrete-time systems based on T-S fuzzy model. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such controllers is given through Lyapunov stability theorem. And it is further shown that this condition is equivalent to the solvability of a certain linear matrix inequality, which can be solved easily by using the LMI toolbox of Matlab. At last, an illustrative example of truck-trailer is presented to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.
基金Supported-by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities of China （NCET-05-0607）, National Natural Science Foundation of China （60774010）, and Program for Fundamental Research of Natural Sciences in Universities of Jiangsu Province （07KJB510114）
基金Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Universities of China （NCET-05-0607）, National Natural Science Foundation of China （60774010）, and Project for Fundamental Research of Natural Sciences in Universities of Jiangsu Province （07KJB510114）
基金Supported by National Key Fundamental Research and Development Project of P. R. China (2002CB312200)
文摘Based on the idea that modules are independent of machines, different combinations of modules and machines result in different configurations and the system performances differ under different configurations, a kind of cyclic reconfigurable flow shops are proposed for the new manufacturing paradigm-reconfigurable manufacturing system. The cyclic reconfigurable flow shop is modeled as a timed event graph. The optimal configuration is defined as the one under which the cyclic reconfigurable flow shop functions with the minimum cycle time and the minimum number of pallets. The optimal configuration, the minimum cycle time and the minimum number of pallets can be obtained in two steps.
