A HYBRID METAHEURISTIC FOR THE SINGLE-MACHINE TOTAL WEIGHTED TARDINESS PROBLEM

Abstract

This article presents a new hybrid algorithm for combinatorial optimization that combines differential evolution (DE) with variable neighborhood search (VNS). DE (a population heuristic for optimization over continuous search spaces) is used as global optimizer for solution evolution guiding the search toward the optimal regions of the search space; VNS (a random local search heuristic based on the systematic change of neighborhood) is used as a local optimizer performing a sequence of local changes on individual DE solutions until a local optimum is found. The effectiveness of a DE-VNS approach is demonstrated on the solution of the single-machine total weighted tardiness scheduling problem. The concepts of Lamarckian and Baldwinian learning are also investigated and discussed. Experiments on known benchmark data sets show that DE-VNS with Lamarckian learning can produce high-quality schedules in a rather short computation time. DE-VNS uses a self-adapted mechanism for tuning the required control parameters, a critical feature rendering it applicable to real-life scheduling problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Baldwin effect
• differential evolution
• hybrid systems
• Lamarckian learning
• scheduling
• variable neighborhood search
• weighted tardiness problem