An ASP-based framework for operating room scheduling

The Operating Room Scheduling (ORS) problem is the task of assigning patients to operating rooms, taking into account different specialties, the surgery and operating room session durations, and different priorities. Given that Answer Set Programming (ASP) has been recently employed for solving real-life scheduling and planning problems, in this paper we first present an off-line solution based on ASP for solving the ORS problem. Then, we present techniques for re-scheduling on-line in case the off-line schedule can not be fully applied. Results of an experimental analysis conducted on benchmarks with realistic sizes and parameters show that ASP is a suitable solving methodology also for the ORS problem. This analysis has been performed with a web framework for managing ORS problems via ASP that allows a user to insert the main parameters of the problem, solve a specific instance, and show results graphically in real-time.