A discrete artificial bee colony algorithm for resource-constrained project scheduling problem

In this paper, we present a new meta-heuristic based on the performance of the artificial bee colony (ABC) for solving the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP). The proposed algorithm iteratively solves the RCPSP by utilizing different types of honey bees on three main steps: initialization, update, and termination. The initial population is obtained through randomization and with respect to precedence constraints. Serial schedule generation scheme is applied to generate a feasible solution. Adaptive mechanism and local search approach, based on discrete insert and swap operators, are used for neighborhood search. The performance of the newly method is compared against a set of state-of-art algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm provides an efficient approach for solving RCPSP.