An Enhanced Discrete Bees Algorithm for Resource Constrained Optimization Problems

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel efficient model based on Bees Algorithm (BA) for the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). The studied RCPSP is a NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem which involves resource, precedence, and temporal constraints. It has been applied to many applications. The main objective is to minimize the expected makespan of the project. The proposed model, named Enhanced Discrete Bees Algorithm (EDBA), iteratively solves the RCPSP by utilizing intelligent foraging behaviors of honey bees. The potential solution is represented by the multidimensional bee, where the activity list representation (AL) is considered. This projection involves using the Serial Schedule Generation Scheme (SSGS) as decoding procedure to construct the active schedules. In addition, the conventional local search of the basic BA is replaced by a neighboring technique, based on the swap operator, which takes into account the specificity of the solution space of project scheduling problems and reduces the number of parameters to be tuned. The proposed EDBA is tested on well-known benchmark problem instance sets from Project Scheduling Problem Library (PSPLIB) and compared with other approaches from the literature. The promising computational results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed approach for solving the RCPSP problems of various scales.