Multi-mode Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling by Ant Colony Optimization with a Dynamic Tournament Strategy

In this paper, the multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) is considered. The MRCPSP is extremely complex and is known to be NP-hard problem. In order to obtain satisfactory sub optimal solutions within a reasonable amount of computational time, various met heuristic techniques have been developed to solve MRCPSP. For a metaheuristic algorithm, too much emphasis on the exploitation of the search experience gathered so far can frequently converge to local optima. On the contrary, too much emphasis on the exploration of unvisited or relatively unexplored search space regions can cause an unstable state. On the basis for balancing between exploitation and exploration, we proposed ACODT-MRCPSP approach which introduces the dynamic tournament strategy to solve MRCPSP. Experimental results indicate that ACODT-MRCPSP approach is a significant improvement compared with the previous attempts at solving the MRCPSP.