Distributed Meeting Scheduler - A Knowledge Based Approach to Schedule Meetings

Constraint satisfaction problems or CSPs are mathematical problems where one must find states or objects that satisfy a number of constraints or criteria. CSPs are the subject of intense research in both artificial intelligence and operations research. Many CSPs require a combination of heuristics and combinational methods to be solved in a reasonable time. "DMS - distributed meeting scheduler" is all about the design and implementation of one such application of constraint satisfaction problem - the meeting scheduling problem. The distributed meeting scheduler (DMS) is a user friendly tool developed to assists humans in office environments to schedule meetings efficiently. The algorithm used in the distributed meeting scheduler paves way for negotiation of various processes on behalf of their users and comes up with an agreement on a common meeting time that is acceptable to all the users and abides by all the constraints set by the hosts and attendees. The motive of the algorithm is to obtain a solution based on the knowledge it acquires during the process. In summary the distributed meeting scheduler follows a decision oriented methodology that depends on knowledge based approach.