Optimal Layout Design for Agricultural Facility Using Simulated Annealing

In this study, optimal layout design approach was used to solve problems related to site layout design of agricultural facilities such as refrigeration house, grading and packing house and warehouse. A basic program to support the rational construction of such facilities using Simulated Annealing (SA), one heuristic algorithm and one solution for combinatorial optimization problems, was coded in C language (Satake(1999)). Layout design simulations were carried out to obtain information for the development of a program for solving practical problems. And, to clarify the feasibility of applying SA to the optimal layout design problems, the layout design simulation using the hill climbing (HC), which is another heuristic algorithm, was carried out for comparison with SA. As a result of the comparison with the optimum solution by HC, the value of cost evaluation by SA using exponential annealing was lower than that of hill climbing. Furthermore, in addition to this simulation, preliminary layout design simulation was also carried out to determine the applicability of the optimal layout design simulator to practical design. In this study, the layout design for a new building and parking was carried out. In the layout design, the site is not rectangular. As a result, the optimal design satisfying our condition was obtained.