A dynamic programming-based heuristic for the variable sized two-dimensional bin packing problem

Abstract

This paper addresses a variable sized two-dimensional bin packing problem. We propose two heuristics, H1 and H2, stemming from the dynamic programming idea by aggregating states to avoid the explosion in the number of states. These algorithms are elaborated for different purposes: H1 builds a general packing plan for items, while H2 can provide solutions by considering a variety of customer demands, such as guillotine cutting style and rotation of items. The performance of both algorithms is evaluated based on randomly generated instances reported in the literature by comparing them with the lower bounds and optimal solutions for identical bins. Computational results show that the average gaps are 8.97% and 13.41%, respectively, for H1 and H2 compared with lower bounds, and 5.26% and 6.26% compared with optimal solutions for identical bins. We also found that we can save 6.67% of space, on average, by considering variable sized bins instead of a bin packing problem with identical bins.

Keywords:

• operational research
• optimisation