Persistent Monitoring by Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Bernstein Polynomials

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - A framework for monitoring a target modeled as Dubins car using multiple UAVs is proposed. The UAVs are subject to minimum and maximum speed,...     

Design of insurance contracts using stochastic programming in forestry planning

This work addresses a tactical planning problem faced by a forestry firm, deciding which timber units to harvest and what roads to build to obtain the greatest possible benefits. We include uncertainty in prices by means of utility theory. This enables solutions to be found that the firm finds preferable to those obtained when risk aversion is ignored and makes it possible to design insurance contracts that benefit the firm while also being attractive to an insurer. Two types of contract are designed; one dependent on the firm’s operating result and the other independent of it. Metrics are then developed to quantify the benefits conferred by a contract, demonstrating that the latter contract type dominates the former. These results are then illustrated by applying them to a simplified planning problem of a forest owned by the Chilean forestry operator Millalemu.     

A simulation-based approach for fleet design in a technician dispatch problem with stochastic demand

We address the problem of developing policies for selecting the proper number of technicians to hire (fleet size) for an on-call repair service operating over a yearly planning horizon in an environment where the number of requests to be serviced each day can vary significantly from day to day and on a seasonal basis. We propose a new approach based on the simulation of a large number of sampled weekly instances and the application of a previously developed optimization procedure for the daily dispatch of technicians. The sampled instances are derived from an extensive statistical analysis of demand data with respect to several key parameters. The results of the simulations are utilized to adjust performance curves in function of fleet size that are then used in an economic analysis of the trade-offs between service quality and cost. Efficient policies for fleet design are then deducted from this analysis.