Application of the Metaheuristic ANGEL in Solving Multiple Projects Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem with Total Tardy Cost

Abstract

The multiple projects resource-constrained project scheduling problem is considered in this paper. Several projects which share several kinds of common resources are to be scheduled simultaneously in this problem. Each project contains Non-pre-emptive activities with deterministic durations compete limited resources under resources and precedence constraints. Moreover, there are the due date and the tardy cost per day that cause the penalty when the project cannot be accomplished before its due date. The objective is to minimize the total tardy cost subject to the resource and precedence constraints. The metaheuristic method called ANGEL is applied to this problem. ANGEL combines ant colony optimization (ACO), genetic algorithm (GA) and local search strategy (LS). In ANGEL, ACO and GA run alternately and cooperatively. ANGEL performs very well in the multiple projects resource-constrained project scheduling problem as revealed by the experimental results.