Ant colony algorithm for construction resource leveling

An ant colony algorithm (ACO) was proposed to make a scientific plan in order to organize and utilize resources reasonably and raise the profit of construction project. The algorithm used serial schedule generation scheme (SSGS) to generate a feasible schedule and employed ACO to search the optimal schedule. The heuristic information was designed according to the characteristics of construction resource leveling. The parameters of the algorithm were set by trial and error with an example. Results verified the usefulness of the algorithm for construction resource leveling. Compared with enumeration, the algorithm produced the same global optimal solution with better searching efficiency, and a significant convergence occurs without much fluctuation.