An Optimization Method for Green Permutation Flow Shop Scheduling Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning and MOEA/D

Abstract

This paper addresses the green permutation flow shop scheduling problem (GPFSP) with energy consumption consideration, aiming to minimize the maximum completion time and total energy consumption as optimization objectives, and proposes a new method that integrates end-to-end deep reinforcement learning (DRL) with the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D), termed GDRL-MOEA/D. To improve the quality of solutions, the study first employs DRL to model the PFSP as a sequence-to-sequence model (DRL-PFSP) to obtain relatively better solutions. Subsequently, the solutions generated by the DRL-PFSP model are used as the initial population for the MOEA/D, and the proposed job postponement energy-saving strategy is incorporated to enhance the solution effectiveness of the MOEA/D. Finally, by comparing the GDRL-MOEA/D with the MOEA/D, NSGA-II, the marine predators algorithm (MPA), the sparrow search algorithm (SSA), the artificial hummingbird algorithm (AHA), and the seagull optimization algorithm (SOA) through experimental tests, the results demonstrate that the GDRL-MOEA/D has a significant advantage in terms of solution quality.

Keywords

• deep reinforcement learning
• multi-objective optimization
• permutation flow shop scheduling
• MOEA/D algorithm
• energy-saving strategy