A new heuristic algorithm for constrained rectangle-packing problem

The constrained rectangle-packing problem is the problem of packing a subset of rectangles into a larger rectangular container, with the objective of maximizing the layout value. It has many industrial applications such as shipping, wood and glass cutting, etc. Many algorithms have been proposed to solve it, for example, simulated annealing, genetic algorithm and other heuristic algorithms. In this paper a new heuristic algorithm is proposed based on two strategies: the rectangle selecting strategy and the rectangle packing strategy. We have applied the algorithm to 21 smaller, 630 larger and other zero-waste instances. The computational results demonstrate that the integrated performance of the algorithm is rather satisfying and the algorithm developed is fairly efficient for solving the constrained rectangle-packing problem.