The periodicity and robustness in a single-track train scheduling problem

The most important operating problem in any railway industry is to produce robust train timetables with minimum delays. The train scheduling problem is defined as an application of job shop scheduling which is considered to be one of the most interesting research topics. This paper deals with scheduling different types of trains in a single railway track. The authors have focused on the robust and periodic aspects of produced timetables. This paper is also concerned with some applicable constraints, such as the acceleration and deceleration times, station capacity and headway constraints. The periodic timetable for railways is modeled based on the periodic event scheduling problem (PESP). Furthermore, a fuzzy approach is used to reach a tradeoff among the total train delays, the robustness of schedules, and the time interval between departures of trains from the same origins. To solve large-scale problems, a meta-heuristic algorithm based on simulated annealing (SA) is utilized and validated using some numerical examples on a periodic robust train scheduling problem. Finally, a robustness measure is defined in order to assure the effectiveness of the proposed SA to find robust solutions.     

A hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for optimization of crew scheduling

Crew scheduling problem is the problem of assigning crew members to the flights so that total cost is minimized while regulatory and legal restrictions are satisfied. The crew scheduling is an NP-hard constrained combinatorial optimization problem and hence, it cannot be exactly solved in a reasonable computational time. This paper presents a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm synchronized with a local search heuristic for solving the crew scheduling problem. Recent studies use genetic algorithm (GA) or ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve large scale crew scheduling problems. Furthermore, two other hybrid algorithms based on GA and ACO algorithms have been developed to solve the problem. Computational results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed hybrid PSO algorithm over other algorithms.     

Parallel machine scheduling in fuzzy environment with hybrid ant colony optimization including a comparison of fuzzy number ranking methods in consideration of spread of fuzziness

This paper studies parallel machine scheduling problems in consideration of real world uncertainty quantified based on fuzzy numbers. Although this study is not the first to study the subject problem, it advances this area of research in two areas: (1) Rather than arbitrarily picking a method, it chooses the most appropriate fuzzy number ranking method based on an in-depth investigation of the effect of spread of fuzziness on the performance of fuzzy ranking methods; (2) It develops the first hybrid ant colony optimization for fuzzy parallel machine scheduling. Randomly generated datasets are used to test the performance of fuzzy ranking methods as well as the proposed algorithm, i.e. hybrid ant colony optimization. The proposed hybrid ant colony optimization outperforms a hybrid particle swarm optimization published recently and two simulated annealing based algorithms modified from our previous work.     

Optimal short-term hydro-thermal scheduling using quasi-oppositional teaching learning based optimization

This paper presents a new approach for solving short-term hydrothermal scheduling (HTS) using an integrated algorithm based on teaching learning based optimization (TLBO) and oppositional based learning (OBL). The practical hydrothermal system is highly complex and possesses nonlinear relationship of the problem variables, cascading nature of hydro reservoirs, water transport delay and scheduling time linkage that make the problem of optimization difficult using standard optimization methods. To overcome these problems, the proposed quasi-oppositional teaching learning based optimization (QOTLBO) is employed. To show its efficiency and robustness, the proposed QOTLBO algorithm is applied on two test systems. Numerical results of QOTLBO are compared with those obtained by two phase neural network, augmented Lagrange method, particle swarm optimization (PSO), improved self-adaptive PSO (ISAPSO), improved PSO (IPSO), differential evolution (DE), modified DE (MDE), fuzzy based evolutionary programming (Fuzzy EP), clonal selection algorithm (CSA) and TLBO approaches. The simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm appears to be the best in terms of convergence speed, solution time and minimum cost when compared with other established methods. This method is considered to be a promising alternative approach for solving the short-term HTS problems in practical power system.     

求解并行机拖期与能耗成本优化调度的混合教一学算法

针对加工时间可控的并行机调度,提出了一类考虑拖期与能耗成本优化的调度问题。首先对调度问题进行了问题描述,并建立了整数线性规划模型以便于CPLEX求解。为了快速获得问题的满意解,提出了一种混合教-学算法。结合问题的性质,设计了编码与解码方法以克服标准教-学算法无法直接适用于离散问题的缺点。同时,构建了基于变邻域搜索的局部搜索算子以强化混合算法的搜索性能。最后,对加工时间可控的并行机调度问题进行了仿真实验,测试结果验证了本文构建的整数线性规划模型和混合算法的可行性和有效性。     

Simulation based optimization of a train maintenance facility

In this paper, a simulation based optimization method is developed for optimization of scheduling policies. This method uses the technique of coupling industrial simulation software with a multi-objective optimizer based on genetic algorithms. It is used to optimize the performances of a railway maintenance facility by choosing the best scheduling policy. Numerical results show that a significant improvement is achieved with respect to the simulation results of the existing system. The method adapted by our problem can be extended to deal with the selection of scheduling rules in using other types of simulation models.     

基于多任务强化学习的堆垛机调度与库位推荐

堆垛机调度是物流仓储自动化中的重要任务,任务中的出入库效率、货物存放等情况影响仓储系统的整体效益。传统调度方法在面对较大规模调度问题时,因处理大状态空间从而导致性能受限和收益降低。与此同时,库位优化与调度运行联系密切,但现有多数工作在处理调度问题时未能考虑到库位优化问题。为解决仓储中堆垛机调度问题,提出一种基于深度强化学习算法的近端策略优化调度方法。将调度问题视为序列决策问题,通过智能体与环境的持续交互进行自我学习,以在不断变化的环境中优化调度。针对调度中伴生的库位优化问题,提出一种基于多任务学习的调度、库位推荐联合算法,并基于调度网络构建适用于库位推荐的Actor网络,通过与Critic网络进行交互反馈,促进整体的联动和训练,从而提升整体效益。实验结果表明,与原算法模型相比,该调度方法的累计回报值指标平均提升了33.6%,所提的多任务学习的联合算法能有效地应对堆垛机调度和库位优化的应用场景,可为该类多任务问题提供可行的解决方案。     

基于改进DPSO的网格资源调度算法

基于市场经济模型的网格资源调度问题是一个典型的离散问题及NP-Hard问题,考虑到离散粒子群优化算法在解决离散问题上的有效性,本文在现有算法的研究基础上,提出一种基于改进的离散粒子群优化算法的网格资源分配和任务调度算法,并采用GridSim模拟器对相关算法进行仿真模拟实验和比较。实验结果表明,本文提出的调度算法在作业完成时间、综合性能以及资源的负载平衡方面均具有较大的优势。     

列车运行网络抗毁性能的量化研究*

为尽可能减少由于自然灾害导致铁路运输受阻甚至中断情况下受影响的列车数,提出了对现有列车运行方案以抗毁性优化为目标的量化分析方法.首先基于当前列车运行方案建立列车运行网络模型,该模型以实际铁路站点为节点,以实际铁路线为边,以每条边开行的列车数量为边权重;随后提出了一个称之为度权效应的抗毁性评价指标,并以该评价指标为目标函数,使用改进粒子群算法对网络权重进行优化.仿真结果得出了优化前后列车运行网络的抗毁性评价值分别为0.8881和0.9063,表明可通过量化分析方法来刻画列车运行网络的抗毁性能.     

A modified genetic algorithm with fuzzy roulette wheel selection for job-shop scheduling problems

The job-shop scheduling problem is one of the most difficult production planning problems. Since it is in the NP-hard class, a recent trend in solving the job-shop scheduling problem is shifting towards the use of heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms. This paper proposes a novel metaheuristic algorithm, which is a modification of the genetic algorithm. This proposed algorithm introduces two new concepts to the standard genetic algorithm: (1) fuzzy roulette wheel selection and (2) the mutation operation with tabu list. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated and compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms in the literature. The experimental results on 53 JSSPs show that the proposed algorithm is very effective in solving the combinatorial optimization problems. It outperforms all state-of-the-art algorithms on all benchmark problems in terms of the ability to achieve the optimal solution and the computational time.     

A hybrid algorithm based on a new neighborhood structure evaluation method for job shop scheduling problem

Job shop scheduling problem (JSP) which is widespread in the real-world production system is one of the most general and important problems in various scheduling problems. Nowadays, the effective method for JSP is a hot topic in research area of manufacturing system. JSP is a typical NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem and has a broad engineering application background. Due to the large and complicated solution space and process constraints, JSP is very difficult to find an optimal solution within a reasonable time even for small instances. In this paper, a hybrid particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) based on variable neighborhood search (VNS) has been proposed to solve this problem. In order to overcome the blind selection of neighborhood structures during the hybrid algorithm design, a new neighborhood structure evaluation method based on logistic model has been developed to guide the neighborhood structures selection. This method is utilized to evaluate the performance of different neighborhood structures. Then the neighborhood structures which have good performance are selected as the main neighborhood structures in VNS. Finally, a set of benchmark instances have been conducted to evaluate the performance of proposed hybrid algorithm and the comparisons among some other state-of-art reported algorithms are also presented. The experimental results show that the proposed hybrid algorithm has achieved good improvement on the optimization of JSP, which also verifies the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed neighborhood structure evaluation method.     

Minimizing makespan subject to minimum flowtime on two identical parallel machines

We consider the problem of scheduling jobs on two parallel identical machines where an optimal schedule is defined as one that gives the smallest makespan (the completion time of the last job) among the set of schedules with optimal total flowtime (the sum of the completion times of all jobs). We propose an algorithm to determine optimal schedules for the problem, and describe a modified multifit algorithm to find an approximate solution to the problem in polynomial computational time. Results of a computational study to compare the performance of the proposed algorithms with a known heuristic shows that the proposed heuristic and optimization algorithms are quite effective and efficient in solving the problem.Scope and purposeMultiple objective optimization problems are quite common in practice. However, while solving scheduling problems, optimization algorithms often consider only a single objective function. Consideration of multiple objectives makes even the simplest multi-machine scheduling problems NP-hard. Therefore, enumerative optimization techniques and heuristic solution procedures are required to solve multi-objective scheduling problems. This paper illustrates the development of an optimization algorithm and polynomially bounded heuristic solution procedures for the scheduling jobs on two identical parallel machines to hierarchically minimize the makespan subject to the optimality of the total flowtime.     

Job Shop Scheduling with the Best-so-far ABC

The Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) is known as one of the most difficult scheduling problems. It is an important practical problem in the fields of production management and combinatorial optimization. Since JSSP is NP-complete, meaning that the selection of the best scheduling solution is not polynomially bounded, heuristic approaches are often considered. Inspired by the decision making capability of bee swarms in the nature, this paper proposes an effective scheduling method based on Best-so-far Artificial Bee Colony (Best-so-far ABC) for solving the JSSP. In this method, we bias the solution direction toward the Best-so-far solution rather a neighboring solution as proposed in the original ABC method. We also use the set theory to describe the mapping of our proposed method to the problem in the combinatorial optimization domain. The performance of the proposed method is then empirically assessed using 62 benchmark problems taken from the Operations Research Library (OR-Library). The solution quality is measured based on “Best”, “Average”, “Standard Deviation (S.D.)”, and “Relative Percent Error (RPE)” of the objective value. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to produce higher quality solutions than the current state-of-the-art heuristic-based algorithms.     

基于两阶段算法的列车调度问题

考虑突发铁路损坏对列车运行的影响, 在列车运行调度理论的基础上, 建立了单线铁路调度模型, 设计了一种带有突发事件处理能力的两阶段列车调度算法, 第1阶段对列车区间运行速度进行调整, 第2阶段对列车的停站时间进行调整. 将3种有效的搜索算子、一种自适应更新规则与粒子群算法相结合, 以列车延迟率作为优化目标, 求解单线铁路列车调度问题. 通过将所提算法与其他算法在相同实验条件下进行测试对比, 并进行突发事件测试, 验证了所提算法的有效性.     

Constraint Reasoning about Repeating Events: Satisfaction and Optimization

Effective manipulation of temporal information about periodic events is required for solving complex problems such as long‐range scheduling or querying temporal information. Furthermore, many problems involving repeating events involve the optimization of temporal aspects of these events (e.g., minimizing make‐span in job‐shop scheduling). In this paper, a constraint‐based formulation of reasoning problems with repeating events is presented, and its complexity is analyzed for a range of problems. Optimization constraints are interpreted formally using the Semiring CSPs (SCSP) representation of optimization in constraint reasoning. This allows for familiar algorithms such as branch‐and‐bound to be applied to solving them.     

基于改进蝙蝠算法的柔性流水车间排产优化问题研究

为解决柔性流水车间调度问题( flexible flow shop scheduling problem,FFSP),提出了一种基于精英个体集的自适应蝙蝠算法(self-adaptive elite bat algorithm,SEBA)。针对蝙蝠算法存在求解离散问题具有局限性、易陷入局部极值、优化结果精度低等问题,该算法采用ROV(ranked order value)编码方式,使算法适用于求解离散型的FFSP问题;提出基于汉明距离的精英个体集,由多个适应度高但相似度低的精英个体轮流引导种群进化,增强种群进化活力,避免寻优过程陷入局部极值;提出自适应位置更新机制,提高算法优化精度。最后采用不同规模的标准实例对改进算法进行测试,与已有算法进行对比,实验结果验证了改进蝙蝠算法求解FFSP问题的有效性。     

A genetic algorithm application using fuzzy processing times in non-identical parallel machine scheduling problem

There are many scheduling problems which are NP-hard in the literature. Several heuristics and dispatching rules are proposed to solve such hard combinatorial optimization problems. Genetic algorithms (GA) have shown great advantages in solving the combinatorial optimization problems in view of its characteristic that has high efficiency and that is fit for practical application [1]. Two different scale numerical examples demonstrate the genetic algorithm proposed is efficient and fit for larger scale identical parallel machine scheduling problem for minimizing the makespan. But, even though it is a common problem in the industry, only a small number of studies deal with non-identical parallel machines. In this article, a kind of genetic algorithm based on machine code for minimizing the processing times in non-identical machine scheduling problem is presented. Also triangular fuzzy processing times are used in order to adapt the GA to non-identical parallel machine scheduling problem in the paper. Fuzzy systems are excellent tools for representing heuristic, commonsense rules. That is why we try to use fuzzy systems in this study.     

A novel hybrid algorithm for scheduling steel-making continuous casting production

In this paper, steel-making continuous casting (SCC) scheduling problem (SCCSP) is investigated. This problem is a specific case of hybrid flow shop scheduling problem accompanied by technological constraints of steel-making. Since classic optimization methods fail to obtain an optimal solution for this problem over a suitable time, a novel iterative algorithm is developed. The proposed algorithm, named HANO, is based on a combination of ant colony optimization (ACO) and non-linear optimization methods.     

Real coded chemical reaction based optimization for short-term hydrothermal scheduling

This paper presents a real coded chemical reaction based (RCCRO) algorithm to solve the short-term hydrothermal scheduling (STHS) problem. Hydrothermal system is highly complex and related with every problem variables in a nonlinear way. The objective of the hydro thermal scheduling is to determine the optimal hourly schedule of power generation for different hydrothermal power system for certain intervals of time such that cost of power generation is minimum. Chemical reaction optimization mimics the interactions of molecules in term of chemical reaction to reach a low energy stable state. A real coded version of chemical reaction optimization, known as real-coded chemical reaction optimization (RCCRO) is considered here. To check the effectiveness of the RCCRO, 3 different test systems are considered and mathematical remodeling of the algorithm is done to make it suitable for solving short-term hydrothermal scheduling problem. Simulation results confirm that the proposed approach outperforms several other existing optimization techniques in terms quality of solution obtained and computational efficiency. Results also establish the robustness of the proposed methodology to solve STHS problems.     

基于遗传算法的某航空发动机装配车间优化调度

航空发动机装配车间装配生产线的调度问题,是一类比较典型的混合Flowshop问题,同时还带有工件可重人等特点,这就区别于一般的Flowshop和Jobshop调度问题,因此,将可重入混合车间调度问题划为第三类调度问题。关于重入式混合车间生产调度的优化问题通常来说都是属于NP难问题。文中通过某航空发动机装配车间生产线的研究,以最小化最大完工时间为目标函数,借助随机矩阵的编码方式和改进的交叉方法与变异方法,提出了基于遗传算法的调度优化方法。最后实验结果表明,文中提出的改进算法能够有效地实现装配车间调度的优化。