An efficient heuristic algorithm for rectangle-packing problem

Rectangle-packing problem involves many industrial applications, such as shipping, timber cutting, very large scale integration (VLSI) floor planning, and so on. This problem has shown to be NP hard, and many algorithms such as genetic algorithm, simulated annealing and other heuristic algorithms are presented to solve it. Based on the wisdom and experience of human being, an efficient heuristic algorithm is proposed in this paper. Two group benchmarks are used to test the performance of the produced algorithm, 19 instances of first group and 3 instances of second group having achieved optimal solutions. The experimental results demonstrate that the presented algorithm is rather efficient for solving the rectangle-packing problem. 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.