Scheduling of Re-entrant Line Based on Swarm Intelligence

Re-entrant line is considered as one of the most complex manufacturing processes distinguished from job shop and flow shop. Based on the analysis of collective activities of ant colony, the typical example of swarm intelligence, a new model of constructing swarm intelligence on multi-agent system (SIMAS) for scheduling of re-entrant line is proposed. In this model, single ant agent is endowed with intelligence by inference engine to adapt to dynamic and complex constraints of re-entrant line. Ant colony comprised of hundreds of intelligent ant agents search optimal scheduling schemes by distributed computing mode in order to improve search efficiency. The unique queen of ant colony evaluates scheduling schemes and hereby updates pheromones, so that the single antpsilas knowledge can be shared by other ants. Also the relevant algorithm, ant colony scheduling algorithm (ACSA) is given. Finally, the validity of the model and algorithm is verified by simulation experiments.