Finding Optimum Resource Allocation to Optimizing Construction Project Time/Cost through Combination of Artificial Agents CPM and GA

Abstract

In order to plan a construction project, computer simulations are frequently used to predict the performance of the operations through simulating the process flows and resource selection procedure. However, for finding the optimum resource allocation of the construction activities, all possible combinations must be tested through simulation study. If the number of activities and allocated resources are high, the numbers of these combinations become too large, then this process would not be economical task to do. Therefore, simulation analysis is no longer considered through an optimization technique. Using of Genetic Algorithms (GA) is one of the simple and widely used tools for optimizing heavy intensive engineering problems which can covers various areas of research. With keeping this in mind, this study presented a new hybrid model which integrated agent based modeling with CPM and GA to find out the best resource allocation combination for the construction project’s activities. Based on the results obtained, this new hybrid model can eectively find the optimum resource allocation with respect to time, cost, or any combination of time-cost.