Viewing construction scheduling as a constraint satisfaction problem

Construction scheduling ranks among the largest and most complex problems faced by project managers. Generating and maintaining a valid schedule in such an environment requires the full recognition for both, the existence and interactions of project entities such as activities, resources, objectives, and constraints. In real-life projects, the number of these entities are diversified and numerous. This paper addresses the construction scheduling problem from the perspective of artificial intelligence. An AI-based technique called "Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP)" is examined for its suitability in this domain. Principles of CSP are first presented. A step-wise procedure for scheduling and resource allocation using CSP is discussed. A numerical example is worked out to demonstrate practicality of CSP.