A Permutation-Based Bees Algorithm for Solving Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem

Abstract

In this article, a novel Permutation-based Bees Algorithm (PBA) is proposed for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) which is widely applied in advanced manufacturing, production planning, and project management. The PBA is a modification of existing Bees Algorithm (BA) adapted for solving combinatorial optimization problems by changing some of the algorithm's core concepts. The algorithm treats the solutions of RCPSP as bee swarms and employs the activity-list representation and moves operators for the bees, in association with the serial scheduling generation scheme (Serial SGS), to execute the intelligent updating process of the swarms to search for better solutions. The performance of the proposed approach is analysed across various problem complexities associated with J30, J60 and J120 full instance sets of PSPLIB and compared with other approaches from the literature. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PBA provides an effective and efficient approach for solving RCPSP.

An integrated hybrid metaheuristic model for the constrained scheduling problem

“…The self-study phase which incorporates the swap mutation with probability randomly modifies some percentage of the learners thereby enhancing the search-ability in the global space. [5] Serial 1.03 0.56 GA [5] Priority rule 1.38 1.12 A-PSO [15] Random key 0.28 0.06 PSO-ICA [14] --0.57 0.46 ABC [16] Serial 0.98 0.57 BSO [16] Serial 0.65 0.36 BA [16] Serial 0.63 0.33 PBA [17] Serial 0.62 0.30 ABC-PSO […”

“…Ziarati et al [16] suggested three different variations of the bee algorithms. Some discretized permutationbased bee algorithm techniques have been proposed by [17], [18]. Research based on hybridization of BA and PSO has also been suggested based on experiments carried out in [19].…”