Investigation on the rectangular packing problem based on the ant colony algorithm

Abstract

The large-scale rectangular packing problem is a typical combinatorial optimisation problem, which belongs to the most complicated NP-complete problem. Now, it is very difficult to obtain the best solution within a certain time by the commonly used theories and methods of calculation. The ant colony algorithm, developed in recent years, is very effective in solving combinatorial optimisation and NP-problems. Based on the analysis of ant colony algorithm and the rectangular packing problem, this paper combine the ant colony algorithm and rectangular packing problem, the best-worst ant model is built and then simulated, finally, an example is used to prove the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.