Hybrid Biogeography-Based Optimization Algorithm for Job Shop Scheduling Problem with Time Lags and Single Transport Robot

We are interesting for the Job shop Scheduling Problem with Time Lags and Single Transport Robot (JSPTL-STR). This problem is a new extension of the Job shop Scheduling Problem, in which, we take into account two additional constraints; the minimum and maximum time lags constraints between finish and start time of two operations and transportation time constraints of different operations between different machines using a single robot. After the completion of an operation on a machine, it needs to be transported using transport robot to the next machine taking some time. The objective is to determine a feasible schedule of machine operations and transport operations with minimal makespan (Completion time of the last operation executed). This problem belongs to a category of problems known as NP-hard problem. Biogeography-Based Optimization (BBO) algorithm is an evolutionary algorithm inspired by the migration of species between habitats. It has successfully solved optimization problems in many different domains and has demonstrated excellent performance. To assess the performance of the proposed algorithm, a series of experiments on new proposed benchmark instances for JSPTL-STR are performed.