A multi-agent system for the decentralized resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem

A restart evolution strategy (RES) for the resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP), as well as its integration in a multi-agent system (MAS) for solving the decentralized resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem (DRCMPSP) will be presented. To evaluate the developed approach, problem instances of the RCPSP taken from the literature with up to 300 activities are used, as well as 80 generated instances of the DRCMPSP, with up to 20 projects and with up to 120 activities each. For 73 instances of the RCPSP, the RES found better solutions than the best ones found so far. In addition, the MAS is suitable for solving large multi-project instances decentrally. The results for the DRCMPSP instances show that the presented decentralized MAS is competitive with a central solution approach.