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An improved ant algorithm for Multi-mode Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Peng Wuliang ,
Huang Min  and
Hao Yongping
Peng Wuliang
Affiliation:
School of Economic and Management, Shenyang Ligong University, 110159 Shenyang, P.R. China. . peng-wuliang@163.com
Huang Min
Affiliation:
College of Information Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, 110819 Shenyang, P.R. China
Hao Yongping
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Advanced Manufacture and Equipment of Liaoning, Shenyang Ligong University, 110159 Shenyang, P.R. China
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Abstract

Many real-world scheduling problems can be modeled as Multi-mode Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problems (MRCPSP). However, the MRCPSP is a strong NP-hard problem and very difficult to be solved. The purpose of this research is to investigate a more efficient alternative based on ant algorithm to solve MRCPSP. To enhance the generality along with efficiency of the algorithm, the rule pool is designed to manage numerous priority rules for MRCPSP. Each ant is provided with an independent thread and endowed with the learning ability to dynamically select the excellent priority rules. In addition, all the ants in the ant algorithm have the prejudgment ability to avoid infeasible routes based on the branch and bound method. The algorithm is tested on the well-known benchmark instances in PSPLIB. The computational results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords

Operations ResearchMathematical Programming
Type
Research Article
Information
RAIRO - Operations Research , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 2014 , pp. 595 - 614
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, ROADEF, SMAI 2014

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