Development and test run of civil engineering schedule acceleration model through ant colony optimization

• Main Authors: Wang, C., Abdul-Rahman, H., Chow, P.S.
• Format: Article
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2016
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); TH Building construction
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/17767/; http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.945954

The traditional scheduling tool Critical Path Method (CPM) exhibits limitations in computational insufficiency due to exhaustive enumeration. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) was therefore applied as a metaheuristic inspired by the ants behavior in foraging activities. A model development team was formed among construction engineers, IT professionals, and Mathematicians to develop a schedule acceleration model by integrating ACO into CPM to ensure proper resources allocated on critical path. The developed model CSAM-ACO targets on schedule acceleration by allocating resources on the newly found critical path after two stages of computation. The trial run proved CSAM-ACO model more favorable compared with CPM.