Patent ID: 7860740

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for automatically generating a seed schedule for a network of transportation resources, the method comprising: defining a plurality of constraints for generating a seed schedule, the seed schedule corresponding to a plurality of segments to be served by a plurality of transportation resources, each segment representing a path to be traversed by a transportation resource and corresponding to a departure from a first market in a market pair and an arrival at a second market in the market pair; assigning at least one of a possible departure window or a possible arrival window to each market pair in the seed schedule using the computer, with each departure window defining a plurality of possible departure times and each arrival window defining a plurality of possible arrival times; using the computer to eliminate particular departure times or arrival times within the possible departure windows or possible arrival windows using constraint programming and based on a degree to which remaining departure times of the possible departure windows or remaining arrival times of the possible arrival windows satisfy the plurality of constraints; identifying a plurality of routes in the seed schedule based on the plurality of constraints using the computer, each route in the plurality of routes including a plurality of sequentially connected segments, each segment having associated remaining departure or arrival times; and generating the seed schedule from the identified plurality of routes using the computer.