Directed Bee Colony Optimization Algorithm to Solve the Nurse Rostering Problem

Algorithm 1

Pseudocode of BCO.

Bee Colony Optimization

() Initialization: Assign every bee to an empty solution.

() Forward Pass

    For every bee

  () set ;

  () Evaluate all possible construction moves.

  () Based on the evaluation, choose one move using Roulette Wheel.

  () if () Go to step ()

       where is the counter for construction move and is the number of construction moves during one forward

       pass.

() Return to Hive.

() Backward Pass starts.

() Compute the objective function for each bee and sort accordingly.

() Calculate probability or logical reasoning to continue with the computed solution and become recruiter bee.

() For every follower, choose the new solution from recruiters.

() If stopping criteria is not met Go to step ().

() Evaluate and find the best solution.

() Output the best solution.