Open Access

ARTICLE

Annealing Harmony Search Algorithm to Solve the Nurse Rostering Problem

Mohammed Hadwan^1,2,3,*
1 Department of Information Technology, College of Computer, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Computer Science, College of Applied Sciences, Taiz University, Taiz, Yemen
3 Intelligent Analytics Group (IAG), College of Computer, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
* Corresponding Author: Mohammed Hadwan. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2022, 71(3), 5545-5559. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2022.024512

Received 20 October 2021; Accepted 06 December 2021; Issue published 14 January 2022

Abstract

A real-life problem is the rostering of nurses at hospitals. It is a famous nondeterministic, polynomial time (NP) -hard combinatorial optimization problem. Handling the real-world nurse rostering problem (NRP) constraints in distributing workload equally between available nurses is still a difficult task to achieve. The international shortage of nurses, in addition to the spread of COVID-19, has made it more difficult to provide convenient rosters for nurses. Based on the literature, heuristic-based methods are the most commonly used methods to solve the NRP due to its computational complexity, especially for large rosters. Heuristic-based algorithms in general have problems striking the balance between diversification and intensification. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce a novel metaheuristic hybridization that combines the enhanced harmony search algorithm (EHSA) with the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm called the annealing harmony search algorithm (AHSA). The AHSA is used to solve NRP from a Malaysian hospital. The AHSA performance is compared to the EHSA, climbing harmony search algorithm (CHSA), deluge harmony search algorithm (DHSA), and harmony annealing search algorithm (HAS). The results show that the AHSA performs better than the other compared algorithms for all the tested instances where the best ever results reported for the UKMMC dataset.

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Keywords

Harmony search algorithm; simulated annealing; combinatorial optimization problems; timetabling; metaheuristic algorithms; nurse rostering problems

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