Title: Investigation on the rectangular packing problem based on the ant colony algorithm

Authors: Yi Guo; Hui Li

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering, Henan Institute of Engineering, Zhengzhou, 451191, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering, Henan Institute of Engineering, Zhengzhou, 451191, China

Abstract: The large-scale rectangular packing problem is a typical combinatorial optimisation problem, which belongs to the most complicated NP-complete problem. Now, it is very difficult to obtain the best solution within a certain time by the commonly used theories and methods of calculation. The ant colony algorithm, developed in recent years, is very effective in solving combinatorial optimisation and NP-problems. Based on the analysis of ant colony algorithm and the rectangular packing problem, this paper combine the ant colony algorithm and rectangular packing problem, the best-worst ant model is built and then simulated, finally, an example is used to prove the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: rectangular packing problem; ant colony optimisation; ACO; best-worst ant model; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2015.071117

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2015 Vol.9 No.1/2/3, pp.164 - 171

Published online: 12 Aug 2015 *

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