An assessment of the algorithm difference measure in a multivariate system for production plans scheduling

Abstract

In the process of designing a production plan, one of the important steps is scheduling the execution of technological operations. The schedule can be created either manually or by using software. If the schedule is compiled by software, then several schedule generation algorithms are used to eliminate possible errors. A set of such algorithms is called a "batch". It is advisable that only different algorithms should be included in the batch. This is necessary to eliminate errors of the same type. Therefore, the search for clones of algorithms in the batch is an urgent production task. To solve it a diversity metric of algorithms was developed in the course of this work. Such a metric numerically (as a percentage) determines how much the algorithms differ. This metric is based on the properties of the algorithm execution. Algorithm traces are constructed in the N-dimensional space using the obtained points. The coordinates of the trace points are the values with which the algorithm works at each step of its execution or each of the control points of the algorithm execution. An experiment was performed to confirm the correctness of this metric. Within this experiment, the trace properties of three sorting algorithms were calculated. Based on the properties obtained, indicators were determined for comparing algorithms in the metric space. The experiment confirmed the effectiveness of using the diversity metric to find clones in the algorithms batch. The scope of this metric is not limited to clone searches. It can be used as an independent indicator of software quality.