Tuning meta-heuristics using multi-agent learning in a scheduling system

Abstract

In complexity theory, scheduling problem is considered as a NP-complete combinatorial optimization problem. Since Multi-Agent Systems manage complex, dynamic and unpredictable environments, in this work they are used to model a scheduling system subject to perturbations. Meta-heuristics proved to be very useful in the resolution of NP-complete problems. However, these techniques require extensive parameter tuning, which is a very hard and time-consuming task to perform. Based on Multi-Agent Learning concepts, this article propose a Case-based Reasoning module in order to solve the parameter-tuning problem in a Multi-Agent Scheduling System. A computational study is performed in order to evaluate the proposed CBR module performance. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.