Approximation Algorithms for Extensible Bin Packing

In a variation of bin packing called extensible bin packing, the number of bins is specified as part of the input, and bins may be extended to hold more than the usual unit capacity. The cost of a bin is 1 if it is not extended, and the size if it is extended. The goal is to pack a set of items of given sizes into the specified number of bins so as to minimize the total cost. Adapting ideas Grötschel et al. (1981), Grötschel et al. (1988), Karmarkar and Karp (1982), Murgolo (1987), we give a fully polynomial time asymptotic approximation scheme (FPTAAS) for extensible bin packing. We close with comments on the complexity of obtaining stronger results.     

Bin Packing with Rejection Revisited

We consider the following generalization of bin packing. Each item has a size in (0,1] associated with it, as well as a rejection cost, that an algorithm must pay if it chooses not to pack this item. The cost of an algorithm is the sum of all rejection costs of rejected items plus the number of unit sized bins used for packing all other items. We first study the offline version of the problem and design an APTAS for it. This is a non-trivial generalization of the APTAS given by Fernandez de la Vega and Lueker for the standard bin packing problem. We further give an approximation algorithm of an absolute approximation ratio 3/2, where this value is best possible unless P=NP.     

Self-adaptive metaheuristics for solving a multi-objective 2-dimensional vector packing problem

In this paper, a multi-objective 2-dimensional vector packing problem is presented. It consists in packing a set of items, each having two sizes in two independent dimensions, say, a weight and a length into a finite number of bins, while concurrently optimizing three cost functions. The first objective is the minimization of the number of used bins. The second one is the minimization of the maximum length of a bin. The third objective consists in balancing the load overall the bins by minimizing the difference between the maximum length and the minimum length of a bin. Two population-based metaheuristics are performed to tackle this problem. These metaheuristics use different indirect encoding approaches in order to find good permutations of items which are then packed by a separate decoder routine whose parameters are embedded in the solution encoding. It leads to a self-adaptive metaheuristic where the parameters are adjusted during the search process. The performance of these strategies is assessed and compared against benchmarks inspired from the literature.     

Efficient lower bounds and heuristics for the variable cost and size bin packing problem

We consider the variable cost and size bin packing problem, a generalization of the well-known bin packing problem, where a set of items must be packed into a set of heterogeneous bins characterized by possibly different volumes and fixed selection costs. The objective of the problem is to select bins to pack all items at minimum total bin-selection cost. The paper introduces lower bounds and heuristics for the problem, the latter integrating lower and upper bound techniques. Extensive numerical tests conducted on instances with up to 1000 items show the effectiveness of these methods in terms of computational effort and solution quality. We also provide a systematic numerical analysis of the impact on solution quality of the bin selection costs and the correlations between these and the bin volumes. The results show that these correlations matter and that solution methods that are un-biased toward particular correlation values perform better.     

一种新的多约束尺寸可变的装箱问题

多约束尺寸可变的装箱问题作为经典装箱问题的扩展,具有极为广泛的应用背景。在以货车运输为主的物流公司的装载环节中,运输成本不仅仅由车厢的空间利用率决定。分析了该类装箱问题与传统的集装箱装载问题的区别,并据此给出了一种新的尺寸可变装箱问题的定义。除了经典装箱问题中物品体积这一参数,还引入了物品类型、箱子类型等参数,建立了数学模型,将经典的FFD（First Fit Decreasing）算法进行了推广,提出了新的算法MFFD,并分析了相关的算法复杂性。最后对FF、FFD以及MFFD算法进行了模拟实验,实验结果表明,在相关参数符合均匀分布的条件下,MFFD算法效果较好。     

A class of simple stochastic online bin packing algorithms

In the one-dimensional bin packing problem a list ofn items has to be packed into a minimum number of unit-capacity bins. A class of linear online algorithms for the approximate solution of bin packing with items drawn from a known probability distribution is presented. Each algorithm depends on the distribution and on a parameter controlling the performance of the algorithm. It is shown that with increasing number of items the expected performance ratio has an arbitrary small deviation from optimum.     

New heuristics for one-dimensional bin-packing

Several new heuristics for solving the one-dimensional bin packing problem are presented. Some of these are based on the minimal bin slack (MBS) heuristic of Gupta and Ho. A different algorithm is one based on the variable neighbourhood search metaheuristic. The most effective algorithm turned out to be one based on running one of the former to provide an initial solution for the latter. When tested on 1370 benchmark test problem instances from two sources, this last hybrid algorithm proved capable of achieving the optimal solution for 1329, and could find for 4 instances solutions better than the best known. This is remarkable performance when set against other methods, both heuristic and optimum seeking.Scope and purposePacking items into boxes or bins is a task that occurs frequently in distribution and production. A large variety of different packing problems can be distinguished, depending on the size and shape of the items, as well as on the form and capacity of the bins (H. Dyckhoff and U. Finke, Cutting and Packing in Production and Distribution: a Typology and Bibliography, Springer, Berlin, 1992). Similar problems occur in minimising material wastage while cutting pieces into particular smaller ones and in the scheduling of identical processors in order to minimise total completion time. This work addresses the basic packing problem, known as the one-dimensional bin packing problem, where it is required to pack a number of items into the smallest possible number of bins of pre-specified equal capacity. Even though this problem is simple to state, it is NP hard, i.e., it is unlikely that there exists an algorithm that could solve every instance of it in polynomial time. Solution of more general realistic packing problems is probably contingent upon the availability of effective and computationally efficient solution procedures for the basic problem. In this work we present several heuristics capable of doing that. Extensive computational testing attests to the power of these heuristics, as well as to their computational efficiency.     

Tree-decomposition based heuristics for the two-dimensional bin packing problem with conflicts

This paper deals with the two-dimensional bin packing problem with conflicts (BPC-2D). Given a finite set of rectangular items, an unlimited number of rectangular bins and a conflict graph, the goal is to find a conflict-free packing of the items minimizing the number of bins used. In this paper, we propose a new framework based on a tree-decomposition for solving this problem. It proceeds by decomposing a BPC-2D instance into subproblems to be solved independently. Applying this decomposition method is not straightforward, since merging partial solutions is hard. Several heuristic strategies are proposed to make an effective use of the decomposition. Computational experiments show the practical effectiveness of our approach.     

Comments on the hierarchically structured bin packing problem

We study the hierarchically structured bin packing problem. In this problem, the items to be packed into bins are at the leaves of a tree. The objective of the packing is to minimize the total number of bins into which the descendants of an internal node are packed, summed over all internal nodes. We investigate an existing algorithm and make a correction to the analysis of its approximation ratio. Further results regarding the structure of an optimal solution and a strengthened inapproximability result are given.     

局内装箱算法综述

系统地介绍了局内装箱算法,归纳了其发展过程中的各种改进如数据分配模型、箱的划分等。阐述了该算法在工作分配、任务调度以及日常生活中的计划、包装、调度等计算机工程领域的应用。最后,对局内装箱算法提出了进一步的研究方向。     

互联网信息组织和规划中的带拒绝装箱问题

讨论如下定义的带拒绝装箱问题：设有许多等长的一维箱子，给定一个物品集，每个物品有两个参数：长度和罚值．物品可以放入箱子也可被拒绝放入箱子．如果将物品放入箱子，则使该箱剩余长度减少．一旦需将某一物品放入某一箱中，而该箱的剩余长度不够时，则需启用新箱子．如果物品被拒绝放入任何箱中，则产生惩罚．问怎样安排物品使所用箱子数与未装箱的物品总罚值之和最小．该问题是一个新的组合优化问题，来源于内部互联网的信息组织和规划．该文首先给出一个最优解值的下界估计，它可用于分枝定界法求最优解．由于该问题是强NP-难的，该文进一步研究它的离线和在线近似算法的设计与分析．文中给出一个离线算法，其绝对性能比为2；同时给出一个在线算法，其绝对性能比不超过3，渐近性能比为2，还对算法性能比的下界进行了讨论．     

On the generalized bin packing problem

The generalized bin packing problem (GBPP) is a novel packing problem arising in many transportation and logistic settings, characterized by multiple items and bins attributes and the presence of both compulsory and non‐compulsory items. In this paper, we study the computational complexity and the approximability of the GBPP. We prove that the GBPP cannot be approximated by any constant, unless . We also study the particular case of a single bin type and show that when an unlimited number of bins is available, the GBPP can be reduced to the bin packing with rejection (BPR) problem, which is approximable. We also prove that the GBPP satisfies Bellman's optimality principle and, exploiting this result, we develop a dynamic programming solution approach. Finally, we study the behavior of standard and widespread heuristics such as the first fit, best fit, first fit decreasing, and best fit decreasing. We show that while they successfully approximate previous versions of bin packing problems, they fail to approximate the GBPP.     

Solving the variable size bin packing problem with discretized formulations

In this paper we study the use of a discretized formulation for solving the variable size bin packing problem (VSBPP). The VSBPP is a generalization of the bin packing problem where bins of different capacities (and different costs) are available for packing a set of items. The objective is to pack all the items minimizing the total cost associated with the bins. We start by presenting a straightforward integer programming formulation to the problem and later on, propose a less straightforward formulation obtained by using a so-called discretized model reformulation technique proposed for other problems (see [Gouveia L. A 2n constraint formulation for the capacitated minimal spanning tree problem. Operations Research 1995; 43:130–141; Gouveia L, Saldanha-da-Gama F. On the capacitated concentrator location problem: a reformulation by discretization. Computers and Operations Research 2006; 33:1242–1258]). New valid inequalities suggested by the variables of the discretized model are also proposed to strengthen the original linear relaxation bounds. Computational results (see Section 4) with up to 1000 items show that these valid inequalities not only enhance the linear programming relaxation bound but may also be extremely helpful when using a commercial package for solving optimally VSBPP.     

A greedy search for the three-dimensional bin packing problem: the packing static stability case

We suggest a greedy search heuristic for solving the three-dimensional bin packing problem (3D-BPP) where in addition to the usual requirement of minimum amount of bins being used, the resulting packing of items into the bins must be physically stable. The problem is NP-hard in the strong sense and imposes severe computational strain for solving it in practice. Computational experiments are also presented and the results are compared with those obtained by the Martello, Pisinger and Vigo (2000) heuristic.     

Online bin stretching with three bins

Online bin stretching is a semi-online variant of bin packing in which the algorithm has to use the same number of bins as an optimal packing, but is allowed to slightly overpack the bins. The goal is to minimize the amount of overpacking, i.e., the maximum size packed into any bin. We give an algorithm for online bin stretching with a stretching factor of \(11/8 = 1.375\) for three bins. Additionally, we present a lower bound of \(45/33 = 1.\overline{36}\) for online bin stretching on three bins and a lower bound of 19/14 for four and five bins that were discovered using a computer search.     

The load-balanced multi-dimensional bin-packing problem

The bin-packing problem is one of the most investigated and applicable combinatorial optimization problems. In this paper we consider its multi-dimensional version with the practical extension of load balancing, i.e. to find the packing requiring the minimum number of bins while ensuring that the average center of mass of the loaded bins falls as close as possible to an ideal point, for instance, the center of the bin. We formally describe the problem using mixed-integer linear programming models, from the simple case where we want to optimally balance a set of items already assigned to a single bin, to the general balanced bin-packing problem. Given the difficulty for standard solvers to deal even with small size instances, a multi-level local search heuristic is presented. The algorithm takes advantage of the Fekete–Schepers representation of feasible packings in terms of particular classes of interval graphs, and iteratively improves the load balancing of a bin-packing solution using different search levels. The first level explores the space of transitive orientations of the complement graphs associated with the packing, the second modifies the structure itself of the interval graphs, the third exchanges items between bins repacking proper n-tuples of weakly balanced bins. Computational experiments show very promising results on a set of 3D bin-packing instances from the literature.     

A parallel multi-objective algorithm for two-dimensional bin packing with rotations and load balancing

Bin packing problems are NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems of fundamental importance in several fields, including computer science, engineering, economics, management, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics. In particular, the non-guillotine version of the single-objective two-dimensional bin packing problem with rotations is a highly complex scheduling problem that consists in packing a set of items into the minimum number of bins, where items can be rotated 90° and are characterized by having different heights and widths. Recently, some authors have proposed multi-objective formulations that also consider additional objectives, such as the balancing the bin load in order to increase its stability. The load imbalance minimization, which depends on the distribution of the items packed in them, is a critical point in many real applications. This paper analyzes how to solve two-dimensional bin packing problems with rotations and load balancing using parallel and multi-objective memetic algorithms that apply a set of search operators specifically designed to solve this problem. Results obtained using a set of test problems show the good performance of parallel and multi-objective memetic algorithms in comparison with other methods found in the literature.     

Packing of one-dimensional bins with contiguous selection of identical items: An exact method of optimal solution

Consideration was given to the one-dimensional bin packing problem under the conditions for heterogeneity of the items put into bins and contiguity of choosing identical items for the next bin. The branch-and-bound method using the “next fit” principle and the “linear programming” method were proposed to solve it. The problem and its solution may be used to construct an improved lower bound in the problem of two-dimensional packing.     

带拒绝箱覆盖问题的局内算法

作为对装箱覆盖问题的推广,提出带拒绝的装箱覆盖问题.设有许多等长的一维箱子,给定一个物品集,每个物品有两个参数:长度和费用.物品可以放入箱子也可被拒绝放入箱子,每个物品只准放入一只箱子中,每只箱子中的物品容量总和至少为箱子容量,一旦箱子中的物品长度达到要求则需启用新箱.如果物品被放入箱中,则产生费用.该问题是一个新的组合优化问题,在内部互联网信息管理等问题中有着广泛的应用背景.给出一个求解该问题的局内近似算法C-FF,分析其最坏情况渐近性能比为1/2,并给出了相应的实验结果.     

Asymptotic fully polynomial approximation schemes for variants of open-end bin packing

We consider three variants of the open-end bin packing problem. Such variants of bin packing allow the total size of items packed into a bin to exceed the capacity of a bin, provided that a removal of the last item assigned to a bin would bring the contents of the bin below the capacity. In the first variant, this last item is the minimum sized item in the bin, that is, each bin must satisfy the property that the removal of any item should bring the total size of items in the bin below 1. The next variant (which is also known as lazy bin covering is similar to the first one, but in addition to the first condition, all bins (expect for possibly one bin) must contain a total size of items of at least 1. We show that these two problems admit asymptotic fully polynomial time approximation schemes (AFPTAS). Moreover, they turn out to be equivalent. We briefly discuss a third variant, where the input items are totally ordered, and the removal of the maximum indexed item should bring the total size of items in the bin below 1, and show that this variant is strongly NP-hard.