Managing Time and Resources of Construction Projects Using Colored Petri Nets and a Genetic Algorithm

Time and resource management are two crucial activities within the project management framework. This paper demonstrates how resource assignment Petri net (RAPN) a class of colored Petri nets, is applied effectively for modeling and scheduling of construction projects, known as a resource- constrained project scheduling (RCPSP). It captures the dynamic behavior of the project at runtime and enables the decision maker to investigate interactions between resources and project requirements. To determine the most suitable scheduling of project resources, the dynamic population and steady-state ge- netic algorithm (DP-SS GA) is integrated into the modeling framework. It is used to identify the best scheduling plan for different working schemes. In order to illustrate different resource assignment strategies and capture the dynamic inter- actions between resources and activities, a running case study is used. It is found that the modeling framework is capable of capturing the model requirements of a construction project. Compared to the exact solution generated by classic project management tools, the proposed model produced a near optimal solution.