OPTIMUM-AIV. A planning and scheduling system for spacecraft AIV

This paper presents a project undertaken for the European Space Agency (FSA). The project is developing a knowledge based system for planning and scheduling of activities for spacecraft assembly, integration and verification (AIV). The system extends to the monitoring of plan execution and the plan repair phases. The objectives of the contract are to develop an operational kernel of a planning, scheduling and plan repair tool, called OPTIMUM-AIV, and to provide facilities which will allow individual projects to customize the kernel to suit its specific needs. The kernel shall consist of a set of software functionalities for assistance in the initial specification of the AIV plan, in the verification and generation of valid plans and schedules for the AIV activities, and in interactive monitoring and execution problem recovery for the detailed AIV plans. Embedded in OPTIMUM-AIV are external interfaces which allow integration with alternative scheduling systems and project databases. The current status of the OPTIMUM-AIV project, as of May 1991, is that the architectural design of the system has been agreed on by ESTEC/FSA and detailed design and implementation is now underway, expecting a final delivery in October of 1991.