Modified genetic algorithm as a new approach for solving the problem of 3d packaging

In this paper, we proposed one of the options for developing a new evolutionary heuristic approach for solving the three-dimensional packing problem called BPP (Bin packing problem), as applied to the variation of this problem with a single container and a set of boxes of various dimensions, called the SKP (Single knapsack problem), and The comparison of 11 basic evolutionary heuristic approaches to solving the problem of three-dimensional packing of BPP (Bin packing problem) variations SKP (Single knapsack problem) with the developed new evolutionary heuristic approach to solving BPP using modi cited genetic algorithm (MGA). By performing correlation and statistical analysis using 10 randomly created sets of input data for solving BPP, the effectiveness of MGAs was proved in comparison with 11 basic evolutionary algorithms for solving BPP. Thus, it was confirmed that MGA and similar algorithms can be effectively used to solve such logistic NP-difficult problems

Comparing several heuristics for a packing problem

Packing problems are in general NP-hard, even for simple cases. Since now there are no highly efficient algorithms available for solving packing problems. The two-dimensional bin packing problem is about packing all given rectangular items, into a minimum size rectangular bin, without overlapping. The restriction is that the items cannot be rotated. The current paper is comparing a greedy algorithm with a hybrid genetic algorithm in order to see which technique is better for the given problem. The algorithms are tested on different sizes data.Comment: 5 figures, 2 tables; accepted: International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigm

Relating Training Instances to Automatic Design of Algorithms for Bin Packing via Features

Automatic Design of Algorithms (ADA) treats algorithm choice and design as a machine learning problem, with problem instances as training data. However, this paper reveals that, as with classification and regression, for ADA not all training sets are equally valuable. We apply genetic programming ADA for bin packing to sev- eral new and existing benchmark sets. Using sets with narrowly- distributed features for training results in highly specialised al- gorithms, whereas those with well-spread features result in very general algorithms. Variance in certain features has a strong corre- lation with the generality of the trained policies

RGFGA: An efficient representation and crossover for grouping genetic algorithms

There is substantial research into genetic algorithms that are used to group large numbers of objects into mutually exclusive subsets based upon some fitness function. However, nearly all methods involve degeneracy to some degree. We introduce a new representation for grouping genetic algorithms, the restricted growth function genetic algorithm, that effectively removes all degeneracy, resulting in a more efficient search. A new crossover operator is also described that exploits a measure of similarity between chromosomes in a population. Using several synthetic datasets, we compare the performance of our representation and crossover with another well known state-of-the-art GA method, a strawman optimisation method and a well-established statistical clustering algorithm, with encouraging results

Ant colony optimisation and local search for bin-packing and cutting stock problems

The Bin Packing Problem and the Cutting Stock Problem are two related classes of NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. Exact solution methods can only be used for very small instances, so for real-world problems, we have to rely on heuristic methods. In recent years, researchers have started to apply evolutionary approaches to these problems, including Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Programming. In the work presented here, we used an ant colony optimization (ACO) approach to solve both Bin Packing and Cutting Stock Problems. We present a pure ACO approach, as well as an ACO approach augmented with a simple but very effective local search algorithm. It is shown that the pure ACO approach can compete with existing evolutionary methods, whereas the hybrid approach can outperform the best-known hybrid evolutionary solution methods for certain problem classes. The hybrid ACO approach is also shown to require different parameter values from the pure ACO approach and to give a more robust performance across different problems with a single set of parameter values. The local search algorithm is also run with random restarts and shown to perform significantly worse than when combined with ACO

Relating Training Instances to Automatic Design of Algorithms for Bin Packing via Features (Detailed Experiments and Results)

Automatic Design of Algorithms (ADA) shifts the burden of algorithm choice and design from developer to machine. Constructing an appropriate solver from a set of problem instances becomes a machine learning problem, with instances as training data. An efficient solver is trained for unseen problem instances with similar characteristics to those in the training set. However, this paper reveals that, as with classification and regression, for ADA not all training sets are equally valuable. We apply a typical genetic programming ADA approach for bin packing problems to several new and existing public benchmark sets. Algorithms trained on some sets are general and apply well to most others, whereas some training sets result in highly specialised algorithms that do not generalise. We relate these findings to features (simple metrics) of instances. Using instance sets with narrowly-distributed features for training results in highly specialised algorithms, whereas those with well-spread features result in very general algorithms. We show that variance in certain features has a strong correlation with the generality of the trained policies. Our results provide further grounding for recent work using features to predict algorithm performance, and show the suitability of particular instance sets for training in ADA for bin packing. The data sets, including all computed features, the evolved policies, and their performances, and the visualisations for all feature sets, are available from http://hdl.handle.net/11667/108.Work funded by UK EPSRC [grants EP/N002849/1, EP/J017515/1]. Results obtained using the EPSRC funded ARCHIE-WeSt HPC [EPSRC grant EP/K000586/1]