Solving Two-Dimensional Rectangle Packing Problem Using Nature-Inspired Metaheuristic Algorithms

Abstract

This paper applies cuckoo search and bat metaheuristic algorithms to solve two-dimensional non-guillotine rectangle packing problem. These algorithms have not been found to be used before in the literature to solve this important industrial problem. The purpose of this work is to explore the potential of these new metaheuristic methods and to check whether they can contribute in enhancing the performance of this problem. Standard benchmark test data has been used to solve the problem. The performance of these algorithms was measured and compared with genetic algorithm and tabu search techniques which can be found to be used widely in the literature to solve this problem. Good optimal solutions were obtained from all the techniques and the new metaheuristic algorithms performed better than genetic algorithm and tabu search. It was seen that cuckoo search algorithm excels in performance as compared to the other techniques.