A Time Predefined Variable Depth Search for Nurse Rostering

Authors:
Edmund K. Burke;Timothy Curtois;Rong Qu;Greet Vanden Berghe
Affiliations:
Department of Computing and Mathematics, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom;School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom;School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom;CODeS, Computer Science, KAHO Sint-Lieven, 9000 Ghent, Belgium/ and Department of Computer Science, KU Leuven-kulak, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium
Venue:
INFORMS Journal on Computing
Year:
2013

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Abstract

This paper presents a variable depth search for the nurse rostering problem. The algorithm works by chaining together single neighbourhood swaps into more effective compound moves. It achieves this by using heuristics to decide whether to continue extending a chain and which candidates to examine as the next potential link in the chain. Because end users vary in how long they are willing to wait for solutions, a particular goal of this research was to create an algorithm that accepts a user specified computational time limit and uses it effectively. When compared against previously published approaches the results show that the algorithm is very competitive.