Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Online Three-Dimensional Bin Packing: A DRL Algorithm with the Buffer Zone Cover

Online Three-Dimensional Bin Packing: A DRL Algorithm with the Buffer Zone

By: Jiawei Zhang and  Tianping Shuai  
Open Access
|Feb 2024

Abstract

The online 3D bin packing problem(3D-BPP) is widely used in the logistics industry and is of great practical significance for promoting the intelligent transformation of the industry. The heuristic algorithm relies too much on manual experience to formulate more perfect packing rules. In recent years, many scholars solve 3D-BPP via deep reinforcement learning(DRL) algorithms. However, they ignore many skills used in manual packing, one of the most important skill is workers put the item aside if the item is packed improperly. Inspired by this skill, we propose a DRL algorithm with a buffer zone. Firstly, we define the wasted space and the buffer zone. And then, we integrate them into the DRL algorithm framework. Importantly, we compare the bin utilization with di erent thresholds of wasted space and di erent buffer zone sizes. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms existing heuristic algorithms and DRL algorithms.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fcds-2024-0005 | Journal eISSN: 2300-3405 | Journal ISSN: 0867-6356
Language: English
Page range: 63 - 74
Submitted on: May 4, 2023
Accepted on: Nov 16, 2023
Published on: Feb 16, 2024
Published by: Poznan University of Technology
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year

© 2024 Jiawei Zhang, Tianping Shuai, published by Poznan University of Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.