《2016 An effective architecture for learning and evolving flexible job-shop schedules》.pdf

European Journal of Operational Research 179 (2007) 316–333 /locate/ejor Discrete Optimization An effective architecture for learning and evolving flexible job-shop schedules Nhu Binh Ho, Joc Cing Tay *, Edmund M.-K. Lai Evolutionary and Complex Systems Program, School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore Received 4 March 2005; accepted 5 April 2006 Available online 12 June 2006 Abstract In recent years, the interaction between evolution and learning has received much attention from the research commu- nity. Some recent studies on machine learning have shown that it can significantly improve the efficiency of problem solving when using evolutionary algorithms. This paper proposes an architecture for learning and evolving of Flexible Job-Shop schedules called LEarnable Genetic Architecture (LEGA). LEGA provides an effective integration between evolution and learning within a random search process. Unlike the canonical evolution algorithm, where random elitist selection and mutational genetics are assumed; through LEGA, the knowledge extracted from previous generation by its schemata learning module is used to influence the diversity and quality of offsprings. In addition, the architecture specifies a population generator module that generates the initial population of schedules and also trains the schemata learning module. A large range of benchmark data taken from literature and some generated by ourselves