Cylinder packing by simulated annealing

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the problem of loading identical items of circular base (tubes, rolls, ...) into a rectangular base (the pallet). For practical reasons, all the loaded items are considered to have the same height. The resolution of this problem consists in determining the positioning pattern of the circular bases of the items on the rectangular pallet, while maximizing the number of items. This pattern will be repeated for each layer stacked on the pallet. Two algorithms based on the meta-heuristic Simulated Annealing have been developed and implemented. The tuning of these algorithms parameters implied running intensive tests in order to improve its efficiency. The algorithms developed were easily extended to the case of non-identical circles.