A Honey Bee Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Minimizing the Total Costs of Resources in MRCPSP

In this paper, we introduce a multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem with finish-to-start precedence relations among project activities, considering renewable and nonrenewable resource costs. We assume that renewable resources are rented and are not available in all periods of time of the project. In other words, there is a mandated ready date as well as a due date for each renewable resource type so that no resource is used before its ready date. However, the resources are permitted to be used after their due dates by paying penalty costs. The objective is to minimize the total costs of both renewable and nonrenewable resource usage. This problem is called multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem with minimization the net present value of total weighted resource tardiness penalty cost (MRCPSP-DCTWRTPC) where for each activity, both renewable and nonrenewable resource requirements depend on activity mode. For this problem, we present a meta-heuristic algorithm based on a Honey Bee Swarm Optimization (HBSO) approach together with a prioritization rule for activities and several improvement and local search methods. Experimental results reveal the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm for the problem in question.