Optimizing Container Loading With Autonomous Robots

Algorithms for container loading

The container loading problem consists of packing boxes of various sizes into available containers in a way which optimizes some objective function. The container loading is the core of many problems which arise in distribution and logistics. As the amount of distributed goods grows and with it the need for automation of distribution processes, also the need for computational models and methods...

Container loading with multi-drop constraints

In this thesis, we develop an algorithm for the container loading problem (CLP) with multi-drop constraints. The CLP is the problem of loading the maximal value of a set of boxes into a container, while ensuring that the boxes neither overlap each other nor the container walls. By adding multi-drop constraints it is further demanded, that the relevant boxes must be available, without rearrangin...

Optimizing Container Terminal Operations

Autonomous mobile robots with lights

We consider the well known distributed setting of computational mobile entities, called robots, operating in the Euclidean plane in Look-Compute-Move (LCM) cycles. We investigate the computational impact of expanding the capabilities of the robots by endowing them with an externally visible memory register, called light, whose values, called colors, are persistent, that is they are not automati...

Algorithms for the Container Loading Problem

In this paper we consider the three-dimensional problem of optimal packing of a container with rectangular pieces. We propose an approximation algorithm based on the "forward state strategy" of dynamic programming. A suitable description of packings is developed for the implementation of the approximation algorithm, and some computational experience is reported. Zusammenfassung: Zur nn aherungs...