Self-adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm for parallel machine scheduling problems

A self-adaptive large neighborhood search method for scheduling n jobs on m non-identical parallel machines with mul- tiple time windows is presented. The problems＇ another feature lies in oversubscription, namely not all jobs can be scheduled within specified scheduling horizons due to the limited machine capacity. The objective is thus to maximize the overall profits of processed jobs while respecting machine constraints. A first-in- first-out heuristic is applied to find an initial solution, and then a large neighborhood search procedure is employed to relax and re- optimize cumbersome solutions. A machine learning mechanism is also introduced to converge on the most efficient neighborhoods for the problem. Extensive computational results are presented based on data from an application involving the daily observation scheduling of a fleet of earth observing satellites. The method rapidly solves most problem instances to optimal or near optimal and shows a robust performance in sensitive analysis.

Generalized multiple time windows model based parallel machine scheduling for TDRSS

The scheduling efficiency of the tracking and data relay satellite system（TDRSS）is strictly limited by the scheduling degrees of freedom（DoF）,including time DoF defined by jobs＇ flexible time windows and spatial DoF brought by multiple servable tracking and data relay satellites（TDRSs）.In this paper,ageneralized multiple time windows（GMTW）model is proposed to fully exploit the time and spatial DoF.Then,the improvements of service capability and job-completion probability based on the GMTW are theoretically proved.Further,an asymmetric path-relinking（APR）based heuristic job scheduling framework is presented to maximize the usage of DoF provided by the GMTW.Simulation results show that by using our proposal 11%improvement of average jobcompletion probability can be obtained.Meanwhile,the computing time of the time-to-target can be shorten to 1/9 of the GRASP.

Adaptive subsequence adjustment with evolutionary asymmetric path-relinking for TDRSS scheduling

Due to the limited transmission resources for data relay in the tracking and data relay satellite system （TDRSS）, there are many job requirements in busy days which will be discarded in the conventional job scheduling model. Therefore, the improvement of scheduling efficiency in the TDRSS can not only help to increase the resource utilities, but also to reduce the scheduling failure ratio. A model of nonhomogeneous parallel machines scheduling problems with time window （NPM-TW） is firstly built up for the TDRSS, considering the distinct features of the variable preparation time and the nonhomogeneous transmission rates for different types of antennas on each tracking and data relay satellite （TDRS）. Then, an adaptive subsequence adjustment （ASA） framework with evolutionary asymmetric path-relinking （EvAPR） is proposed to solve this problem, in which an asymmetric progressive crossover operation is involved to overcome the local optima by the conventional job inserting methods. The numerical results show that, compared with the classical greedy randomized adaptive search procedure （GRASP） algorithm, the scheduling failure ratio of jobs can be reduced over 11% on average by the proposed ASA with EvAPR.