Using Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization for Process Planning Problem

In this paper, a hybrid particle swarm optimization (PSO) incorporating local search algorithm is reported to handle the process planning problem. From modeling perspective, the process planning problem is considered as deciding the operation methods, including selection of machine, tool and tool approach direction, and operation sequencing in a concurrent way, which is a non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard combinatorial problem. To solve this discrete optimization problem, a hybrid PSO approach is proposed using a specific solution representation, update and search. The presented case study has shown the capability of the proposed algorithm to gain a good quality of solution.