Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

Project scheduling is the significant technique to attain the lean management, and applications can be found in such fields as construction engineering, equipment support, software development, etc. An activity-on-arrow (AOA) version of the resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) with the objective of minimizing project duration, derived from the decision making of the equipment support task, is formulated as a combination optimization problem and solved using the priority-based particle swarm optimization (PSO). The activity priorities are represented by particle positions and a serial scheduling scheme (SSS) is utilized to transform particle- represented priorities to an active schedule according to the precedence and resource constraints so that the project duration corresponding to each particle can be evaluated. The framework of the PSO scheme for the RCPSB is developed. Simulation is provided so as to investigate the performance of the priority- based PSO approach for the RCPSB. The optimal solution to a benchmark instance is obtained and compared to that of genetic algorithm, consistency between them showing the effectiveness and efficiency of the particle swarm optimization method. Keywords-resource constrained; project duration optimization; equipment support; particle swarm optimization; network planning; activity-on-arrow network; serial scheduling scheme; local ring topology