Intelligent resource simulation for an airport check-in counter allocationsystem

The objective of resource allocation systems is to assign valuable corporat e resources to meet business demands. However, in applications involving st ochastic events, demands cannot be determined explicitly beforehand. For th ose applications, computer simulation is often used to predict resource dem ands. This paper describes research in developing a knowledge-based simulat ion system to predict resource requirements at an international airport. Ou r intelligent resource simulation system (IRSS) determines how many check-i n counters should be allocated to each departure flight while providing pas sengers with sufficient quality of service. This predicted resource require ment is then used by a constraint-based resource allocation system to alloc ate the actual check-in counters. Because IRSS considers many more factors than a human can, the resulting allocation schedule is more efficient. Thes e factors include: 1) different service rates for different destinations, a irlines, or handling agents; 2) different passenger arrival rates for diffe rent times of the day or days of the week; and 3) different requirements fo r different service levels, etc. Our experiments show that there are substa ntial resource savings by combining a resource allocation system with an in telligent resource simulation system.