Robust Security Guard Scheduling Problem in Dynamic Environment

The proper operation of security guards is one of the major issues in public institutions. By assigning the security guard to the most appropriate duty areas and time-slots, the service can be provided in the best conceivable way. Security Guard Scheduling Problem (SGSP) is a combinatorial optimization problem, in which a set of security guards must be assigned into a limited set of working slots, subject to a given set of constraints. In the real world, it is natural to consider the scheduled security guard’s unexpected absences, e.g., illness, accident and injury of a security guard. In addition, it is required to respond immediately to the unexpected additional security works in case of emergency. Robustness, i.e., the ability to satisfy the security level even if some security guards break down, and the ability to respond immediately to the unexpected additional security works, is an expected property of a security guard team. In this paper, the main focus is laid on the Robust Security Guard Scheduling Problem (R-SGSP) . Two formal frameworks are defined, namely Proactive Security Guard Scheduling Problem with Robustness (R-SGSPpro) and Reactive Security Guard Scheduling Problem with Robustness (R-SGSPre), and some decision and optimization problems for R-SGSPpro and R-SGSPre are provided. Furthermore, zero-one integer programming formulations for the R-SGSPpro and R-SGSPre are provided. Finally, some empirical results for R-SGSPpro and R-SGSPre are reported.