Worm optimisation algorithm to minimise the makespan for the two-machine scheduling problem with a single server

This paper considers the problem of scheduling a given set of jobs on two identical parallel machines. Each job must be processed on one of the machines, and prior to processing, the job is set up on its machine using one server; the latter is shared between the two machines. This problem is known as the two-machine scheduling problem with a single server, and our objective is to minimise the makespan. A worm optimisation algorithm (WO) is introduced for this NP-hard problem, and its performance is compared to ant colony optimisation, simulated annealing, and genetic algorithm, as well as exact approach. The superiority of WO over the other algorithms is obtained through extensive computational results.