Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Problem with AGV Transportation Consideration Based on Hybrid Imperialist Competitive Algorithm

This paper delves into the problem of scheduling manufacturing workshop operations with multiple Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), aiming to minimize the maximum completion time. To tackle this issue, a novel approach based on the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm is proposed with the integration of a disjunctive graph-based critical path method and a variable neighborhood descent method. Furthermore, the variable neighborhood descent. This enhances the algorithm's optimization capability prevents it from getting trapped in local optimal. Through comprehensive experiments on the test datasets, the effectiveness and stability of the proposed algorithm are validated.