The Design of Memetic Algorithms for Scheduling and Timetabling Problems

There are several characteristics that make scheduling and timetabling problems particularly difficult to solve: they have huge search spaces, they are often highly constrained, they require sophisticated solution representation schemes, and they usually require very time-consuming fitness evaluation routines. There is a considerable number of memetic algorithms that have been proposed in the literature to solve scheduling and timetabling problems. In this chapter, we concentrate on identifying and discussing those strategies that appear to be particularly useful when designing memetic algorithms for this type of problems. For example, the many different ways in which knowledge of the problem domain can be incorporated into memetic algorithms is very helpful to design effective strategies to deal with infeasibility of solutions. Memetic algorithms employ local search, which serves as an effective intensification mechanism that is very useful when using sophisticated representation schemes and time-consumingfitness evaluation functions. These algorithms also incorporate a population, which gives them an effective explorative ability to sample huge search spaces. Another important aspect that has been investigated when designing memetic algorithms for scheduling and timetabling problems, is how to establish the right balance between the work performed by the genetic search and the work performed by the local search. Recently, researchers have put considerable attention in the design of self-adaptive memetic algorithms. That is, to incorporate memes that adapt themselves according to the problem domain being solved and also to the particular conditions of the search process. This chapter also discusses some recent ideas proposed by researchers that might be useful when designing self-adaptive memetic algorithms. Finally, we give a summary of the issues discussed throughout the chapter and propose some future research directions in the design of memetic algorithms for scheduling and timetabling problems.

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