Improved methods f or scheduling flexible manufacturing systems based on Pet ri nets and heuristic search

This paper proposes and evaluates two improved Petri net (PN) - based hybrid search strategies and their applications to flexible manufacturing system (FMS) scheduling. The algorithms proposed in some previous papers ,which combine PN simulation capabilities with A 3 heuristic search within the PN reachability graph ,may not find an optimum solution even with an admissible heuristic function. To remedy the defects an improved heuristic search strategy is proposed ,which adopts a different method for selecting the promising markings and reserves the admissibility of the algorithm. To speed up the search process ,another algorithm is also proposed which invokes faster termination conditions and still guarantees that the solution found is optimum. The scheduling results are compared through a simple FMS between our algorithms and the previous methods. They are also applied and evaluated in a set of randomly- generated FMSs with such characteristics as multiple resources and alternative routes.     

一种新的FMS优化调度算法

提出一种将遗传算法和启发式算法相结合的新的混合算法,以解决ＦＭＳ中的优化调度问题。该混合算法克服了以往遗传算法在ＦＭＳ中应用的不足之处,并具有搜索效率高且稳定的特点。最后以实例验证了该算法的高效性和稳定性。     

Search strategy for scheduling flexible manufacturing systems simultaneously using admissible heuristic functions and nonadmissible heuristic functions

To scheduling flexible manufacturing system (FMS) efficiently, we propose and evaluate an improved search strategy and its application to FMS scheduling in the P-timed Petri net framework. On the execution of Petri net, the proposed method can simultaneously use admissible heuristic functions and nonadmissible heuristic functions for A^* algorithm. We also prove that the resulting combinational heuristic function is still admissible and more informed than any of its constituents. The experimental results of an example FMS and several sets of random generated problems show that the proposed search method performs better as we expected.     

Combined Petri net modelling and AI-based heuristic hybrid search for flexible manufacturing systems—part II. Heuristic hybrid search

This two-part paper presents modelling and scheduling approaches of flexible manufacturing systems using Petri nets (PNs) and artificial intelligence (AI)-based heuristic search methods. In Part I, PN-based modelling approaches and basic AI-based heuristic search algorithms were presented. In Part II, a new heuristic function that exploits PN information is proposed. Heuristic information obtained from the PN model is used to dramatically reduce the search space. This heuristic is derived from a new concept, the resource cost reachability matrix, which builds on the properties of B-nets proposed in Part I. Two hybrid search algorithms, (1) an approach to model dispatching rules using analysis information provided by the PN simulation and (2) an approach of the modified stage-search algorithm, are proposed to reduce the complexity of large systems. A random problem generator is developed to test the proposed methods. The experimental results show promising results.     

预制构件并行生产线资源配置与生产调度集成优化

并行生产线和特定工序生产资源共享模式可以显著改善客户满意度并节约成本.针对预制构件并行生产线资源配置与生产调度集成优化问题,基于分解策略和交替迭代优化思想,提出一种交替式混合果蝇-禁忌搜索算法(AHFOA＿TS)以最小化拖期惩罚费用.首先,通过快速启发式方法产生一较好初始解;然后,固定资源配置方案,为提高算法局部搜索能力,通过集成多种局部搜索方式,设计一种离散果蝇优化算法优化订单指派及调度方案;最后,固定订单指派及调度方案,为减少无效搜索次数,设计一种基于双层变异算子和精英劣解交叉策略的混合禁忌搜索算法以优化资源配置方案,如此两个阶段交替运行直至满足终止条件.此外,设计4种基于交替搜索框架的智能优化算法用于比较.计算结果表明, AHFOA＿TS算法能够更有效求解预制构件生产线资源配置和生产调度集成优化问题.     

An integrated search heuristic for large-scale flexible job shop scheduling problems

The flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is a generalization of the classical job shop scheduling problem (JSP), where each operation is allowed to be processed by any machine from a given set, rather than one specified machine. In this paper, two algorithm modules, namely hybrid harmony search (HHS) and large neighborhood search (LNS), are developed for the FJSP with makespan criterion. The HHS is an evolutionary-based algorithm with the memetic paradigm, while the LNS is typical of constraint-based approaches. To form a stronger search mechanism, an integrated search heuristic, denoted as HHS/LNS, is proposed for the FJSP based on the two algorithms, which starts with the HHS, and then the solution is further improved by the LNS. Computational simulations and comparisons demonstrate that the proposed HHS/LNS shows competitive performance with state-of-the-art algorithms on large-scale FJSP problems, and some new upper bounds among the unsolved benchmark instances have even been found.     

Hybrid heuristic search approach for deadlock-free scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems using Petri nets

Based on the Petri net models of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), this paper focuses on deadlock-free scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Two hybrid heuristic search algorithms for solving such scheduling problems of FMSs are proposed. To avoid deadlocks, the deadlock control policy is embedded into heuristic search strategies. The proposed algorithms combine the heuristic best-first strategy with the controlled backtracking strategy based on the execution of the Petri nets. The scheduling problem is transformed into a heuristic search problem in the reachability graph of the Petri net, and a schedule is a transition sequence from the initial marking to the final marking in the reachability graph. By using the one-step look-ahead method in the deadlock control policy, the safety of a state in the reachability graph is checked, and hence, deadlock is avoided. Experimental results are provided and indicate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid heuristic search algorithms in solving deadlock-free scheduling problems of FMSs. Especially, the comparison against previous work shows that both new algorithms are promising in terms of solution quality and computing times.     

A filter-and-fan approach with adaptive neighborhood switching for resource-constrained project scheduling

This paper presents an effective heuristic algorithm based on the framework of the filter-and-fan (F&F) procedure for solving the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP). The proposed solution methodology, called the filter-and-fan approach with adaptive neighborhood switching (FFANS), operates on four different neighborhood structures and incorporates improved local search, F&F search with multiple neighborhoods and an adaptive neighborhood switching procedure. The improved local search, in which a new insert-based move strategy and new time compression measurement of schedules having the same makespan are embedded, is utilized to identify a local optimum and a basic move list. The F&F search, aimed to further improve the local optimum, applies multi-neighborhood filter and fan strategies to generate compound moves and a neighborhood-switch list in a tree search fashion. When the current neighborhood cannot further improve the local optimum, the adaptive neighborhood switching procedure picks the most potential neighborhood for the next run of the local search procedure. The entire solution procedure is autonomous and adaptive due to its variable search range depending on the project sizes and characteristics. Computational results and comparisons with some state-of-the-art algorithms indicate the effectiveness and competence of the proposed FFANS.     

基于改进迭代贪婪算法的预制构件调度研究

迭代贪婪算法是一种具有较强局部搜索能力的元启发式算法,但由于传统迭代贪婪算法搜索范围过大,搜索效率有限,为了进一步提升传统迭代贪婪算法的搜索能力,考虑到阈值接受算法具有能缩小搜索范围的特点,提出了一种改进的迭代贪婪算法解决流水车间预制生产的订单接受与调度问题。该改进算法是在破坏原调度序列后加入一种基于构造启发式规则的重建策略,并结合阈值接受算法的自适应接受准则用以跳出局部最优。经大量仿真实验结果显示,与传统迭代贪婪算法、禁忌搜索算法以及遗传算法对比,改进的迭代贪婪算法具有更好的求解质量和鲁棒性。     

Probabilistic optimal solution assessment for DCOPs

Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOPs) are widely used in Multi-Agent Systems for coordination and scheduling. The present paper proposes a heuristic algorithm that uses probabilistic assessment of the optimal solution in order to quickly find a solution that is not far from the optimal one. The heuristic assessment uses two passes by the agents to produce a high-quality solution. Extensive performance evaluation demonstrates that the solution of the proposed probabilistic assessment algorithm is indeed very close to the optimum, on smaller problems where this could be measured. In larger set-ups, the quality of the solution is demonstrated relatively to standard incomplete search algorithms.     

改进型细菌觅食算法及多货叉仓库调度应用

针对多货叉仓库调度优化问题,提出一种改进型细菌觅食算法。首先,分阶段对趋化步长进行自适应调节,引导搜索沿最优方向进行;其次,提出基于个体种群多样性贡献率的启发式迁移策略,降低进入局部最优的机率;再次,采用不可行解部分保留策略以增加求出最优解的机会;最后,对该算法的收敛性进行证明,并结合工业现场调度问题对其性能进行验证。算例结果表明,所提出的算法对多货叉仓库调度优化问题在解的质量及收敛速度上都取得了较好效果。     

Iterated greedy algorithms for the blocking flowshop scheduling problem with makespan criterion

Recently, iterated greedy algorithms have been successfully applied to solve a variety of combinatorial optimization problems. This paper presents iterated greedy algorithms for solving the blocking flowshop scheduling problem (BFSP) with the makespan criterion. Main contributions of this paper can be summed up as follows. We propose a constructive heuristic to generate an initial solution. The constructive heuristic generates better results than those currently in the literature. We employ and adopt well-known speed-up methods from the literature for both insertion and swap neighborhood structures. In addition, an iteration jumping probability is proposed to change the neighborhood structure from insertion neighborhood to swap neighborhood. Generally speaking, the insertion neighborhood is much more effective than the swap neighborhood for the permutation flowshop scheduling problems. Instead of considering the use of these neighborhood structures in a framework of the variable neighborhood search algorithm, two powerful local search algorithms are designed in such a way that the search process is guided by an iteration jumping probability determining which neighborhood structure will be employed. By doing so, it is shown that some additional enhancements can be achieved by employing the swap neighborhood structure with a speed-up method without jeopardizing the effectiveness of the insertion neighborhood. We also show that the performance of the iterated greedy algorithm significantly depends on the speed-up method employed. The parameters of the proposed iterated greedy algorithms are tuned through a design of experiments on randomly generated benchmark instances. Extensive computational results on Taillard’s well-known benchmark suite show that the iterated greedy algorithms with speed-up methods are equivalent or superior to the best performing algorithms from the literature. Ultimately, 85 out of 120 problem instances are further improved with substantial margins.     

针对移动云计算任务迁移的快速高效调度算法

计算量较大的应用程序由于需要大量的能耗,因此在电池容量有限的移动设备上运行时十分受限。云计算迁移技术是保证此类应用程序在资源有限的设备上运行的主流方法。针对无线网络中应用程序任务图的调度和迁移问题,提出了一种快速高效的启发式算法。该算法将能够迁移到云端的任务都安排在云端完成这种策略作为初始解,通过逐次计算可迁移任务在移动端运行的能耗节省量,依次将节省量最大的任务迁移到移动端,并依据任务间的通讯时间及时更新各个任务的能耗节省量。为了寻找全局最优解,构造了适用于此问题的禁忌搜索算法,给出了相应的编码方法、禁忌表、邻域解以及算法终止准则。构造的禁忌搜索算法以提出的启发式解为初始解进行全局搜索,并实现对启发解的进一步优化。通过 实验 将所提方法与无迁移、随机迁移、饱和迁移3类算法进行对比,结果表明提出的启发式算法能够快速有效地给出能耗更小的解。例如,在宽度为10的任务图上,当深度为8时,无迁移、随机迁移与饱和迁移的能耗分别为5461、3357和2271能量单位,而给出的启发解对应的能耗仅为2111。在此基础上禁忌搜索算法又将其能耗降低到1942, 这进一步说明了提出的启发式算法能够产生高质量的近似解。     

An improved iterated greedy algorithm with a Tabu-based reconstruction strategy for the no-wait flowshop scheduling problem

This paper proposes a Tabu-mechanism improved iterated greedy (TMIIG) algorithm to solve the no-wait flowshop scheduling problem with a makespan criterion. The idea of seeking further improvement in the iterated greedy (IG) algorithm framework is based on the observation that the construction phase of the original IG algorithm may not achieve good performance in escaping from local minima when incorporating the insertion neighborhood search. To overcome this limitation, we have modified the IG algorithm by utilizing a Tabu-based reconstruction strategy to enhance its exploration ability. A powerful neighborhood search method that involves insert, swap, and double-insert moves is then applied to obtain better solutions from the reconstructed solution in the previous step. Empirical results on several benchmark problem instances and those generated randomly confirm the advantages of utilizing the new reconstruction scheme. In addition, our results also show that the proposed TMIIG algorithm is relatively more effective in minimizing the makespan than other existing well-performing heuristic algorithms.     

Filtered-beam-search-based algorithm for dynamic rescheduling in FMS

In the practical production process of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS), unexpected disturbances such as rush orders arrival and machine breakdown may inevitably render the existing schedule infeasible. This makes dynamic rescheduling necessary to respond to the disturbances and to improve the efficiency of the disturbed FMS. Compared with the static scheduling, the dynamic rescheduling relies on more effective and robust search approaches for its critical requirement of real-time optimal response. In this paper, a filtered-beam-search (FBS) -based heuristic algorithm is proposed to solve the dynamic rescheduling problem in a large and complicated job shop FMS environment with realistic disturbances. To enhance its performance, the proposed algorithm makes improvement in the local/global evaluation functions and the generation procedure of branches. With respect to a due date-based objective (weighted quadratic tardiness), computational experiments are studied to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison with those of other popular methods. The results show that the proposed FBS-based algorithm performs very well for dynamic rescheduling in terms of computational efficiency and solution quality.     

SOLVING THE OPEN SHOP SCHEDULING PROBLEM VIA A HYBRID GENETIC-VARIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD SEARCH ALGORITHM

In this article, a hybrid metaheuristic method for solving the open shop scheduling problem (OSSP) is proposed. The optimization criterion is the minimization of makespan and the solution method consists of four components: a randomized initial population generation, a heuristic solution included in the initial population acquired by a Nawaz-Enscore-Ham (NEH)-based heuristic for the flow shop scheduling problem, and two interconnected metaheuristic algorithms: a variable neighborhood search and a genetic algorithm. To our knowledge, this is the first hybrid application of genetic algorithm (GA) and variable neighborhood search (VNS) for the open shop scheduling problem. Computational experiments on benchmark data sets demonstrate that the proposed hybrid metaheuristic reaches a high quality solution in short computational times. Moreover, 12 new hard, large-scale open shop benchmark instances are proposed that simulate realistic industrial cases.     

Communication-aware task scheduling and voltage selection for total energy minimization in a multiprocessor system using Ant Colony Optimization

Energy consumption is a key parameter when highly computational tasks should be performed in a multiprocessor system. In this case, in order to reduce total energy consumption, task scheduling and low-power methodology should be combined in an efficient way. This paper proposes an algorithm for off-line communication-aware task scheduling and voltage selection using Ant Colony Optimization. The proposed algorithm minimizes total energy consumption of an application executing on a homogeneous multiprocessor system. The artificial agents explore the search space based on stochastic decision-making using global heuristic information with total energy consumption and local heuristic information with interprocessor communication volume. In search space exploration, both voltage selection and the dependencies between tasks are considered. The pheromone trails are updated by normalizing the total energy consumption. The pheromone trails represent the global heuristic information in order to utilize all entire energy consumption information from previous evaluated solutions. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional communication-aware task scheduling and task scheduling using genetic algorithms in terms of total energy consumption.     

An Artificial Bee Colony algorithm with guide of global & local optima and asynchronous scaling factors for numerical optimization

Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is a wildly used optimization algorithm. However, ABC is excellent in exploration but poor in exploitation. To improve the convergence performance of ABC and establish a better searching mechanism for the global optimum, an improved ABC algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the proposed algorithm integrates the information of previous best solution into the search equation for employed bees and global best solution into the update equation for onlooker bees to improve the exploitation. Secondly, for a better balance between the exploration and exploitation of search, an S-type adaptive scaling factors are introduced in employed bees’ search equation. Furthermore, the searching policy of scout bees is modified. The scout bees need update food source in each cycle in order to increase diversity and stochasticity of the bees and mitigate stagnation problem. Finally, the improved algorithms is compared with other two improved ABCs and three recent algorithms on a set of classical benchmark functions. The experimental results show that the our proposed algorithm is effective and robust and outperform than other algorithms.     

基于禁忌搜索的启发式算法求解球体Packing问题*

为求解具有NP难度的球体Packing问题,通过将禁忌搜索方法与基于自适应步长的梯度下降法和二分法相结合,提出了一个启发式算法。对50个等球算例进行了实例测试,算法改进了其中44个算例的目前最优结果。大量的实例计算结果表明,该启发式算法是求解球体Packing问题的一个有效算法。     

一种用于PFSP节能优化的混合禁忌搜索算法

为了追求节能减排与净利润最大化,建立一种置换流水车间订单接受与调度模型。禁忌搜索是一类启发式全局搜索算法,传统禁忌搜索对初始解依赖较大,没有对考虑能效的置换流水车间调度问题进行更深入的优化。鉴于问题的复杂性,提出了一种节能混合禁忌搜索算法,结合了NEH构造启发式算法的优势,并在该算法中设计了订单接受与拒绝编码方式、能耗调整与交货期配置策略。最后采用大量随机实例对性能进行分析。实验结果表明,通过上述改进,改善了算法的全局搜索能力与解决复杂模型的寻优能力,节能混合禁忌搜索较单一算法而言性能更优,可以有效增加企业总净利润,降低能源消耗。