An Enhanced Whale Optimization Algorithm For The Two-dimensional Irregular Strip Packing Problem

The main research object of this article is the two-dimensional irregular strip packing problem(2DIRSP).This problem is also called nesting problem which is a core problem of the more general field--packing problem.It has extensive scientific research and application in manufacturing industries,such as clothing manufacturing,leather cutting,and shoe manufacturing.One of the most typical applications is cutting parts in garment manufacturing.This problem requires cutting out all the parts that meet the requirements in the rectangular belt with a fixed width.The goal of this problem is to minimize the length of raw materials,which is equivalent to maximizing the utilization ratio,and thus to improve the economic efficiency.Therefore,it is of great practical value to study the two-dimensional irregular strip packing problem.To meet the real need of finding a high utilization packing solution in a short time,a set of Algorithm,EWS,is proposed to solve the 2DIRSP problem.EWS adopts three stages to solve the 2DIRSP problem.Firstly,a heuristic algorithm is adopted to obtain an initial legal packing scheme.Then on the legal layout,by reducing or increasing the length of the rectangular belt,the Layout Adjustment Algorithm is called to search for a better solution.Finally,when the time limit is reached,a global compression algorithm is used to further improve the layout scheme and output the final packing result.For the whole EWS algorithm,the Layout Adjustment Algorithm is the key,and the enhanced whale swarm optimization Algorithm(PEWOA)is the core,PEWOA is called in the Layout Adjustment Algorithm.PEWOA is a Meta-heuristic optimization algorithm based on the original Whale Optimization Algorithm(WOA).It specifically introduces some strategies such as adaptive weighting factors,local perturbations,and global run-out mutations,so that the improved whale swarm optimization algorithm can better balance global exploration search and local development search capabilities.In this paper,the idea of the whale optimization algorithm is innovatively applied to solve the 2DIRSP problem.After comparing the utilization ratio of the proposed algorithm with that of other literatures,it is found that the proposed algorithm has a good utilization ratio and strong competitiveness.