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A heuristic for the circle packing problem with a variety of containers

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  • López, C.O.
  • Beasley, J.E.

Abstract

In this paper we present a heuristic algorithm based on the formulation space search method to solve the circle packing problem. The circle packing problem is the problem of finding the maximum radius of a specified number of identical circles that can be fitted, without overlaps, into a two-dimensional container of fixed size. In this paper we consider a variety of containers: the unit circle, unit square, rectangle, isosceles right-angled triangle and semicircle. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem involving both Cartesian and polar coordinate systems. Formulation space search consists of switching between different formulations of the same problem, each formulation potentially having different properties in terms of nonlinear optimization. As a component of our heuristic we solve a nonlinear optimization problem using the solver SNOPT. Our heuristic improves on previous results based on formulation space search presented in the literature. For a number of the containers we improve on the best result previously known. Our heuristic is also a computationally effective approach (when balancing quality of result obtained against computation time required) when compared with other work presented in the literature.

Suggested Citation

  • López, C.O. & Beasley, J.E., 2011. "A heuristic for the circle packing problem with a variety of containers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 214(3), pages 512-525, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:214:y:2011:i:3:p:512-525
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pierre Hansen & Nenad Mladenović & José Moreno Pérez, 2010. "Variable neighbourhood search: methods and applications," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 367-407, March.
    2. Castillo, Ignacio & Kampas, Frank J. & Pintér, János D., 2008. "Solving circle packing problems by global optimization: Numerical results and industrial applications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 191(3), pages 786-802, December.
    3. A. Grosso & A. Jamali & M. Locatelli & F. Schoen, 2010. "Solving the problem of packing equal and unequal circles in a circular container," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 63-81, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Jingfa & Jiang, Yucong & Li, Gang & Xue, Yu & Liu, Zhaoxia & Zhang, Zhen, 2015. "Heuristic-based energy landscape paving for the circular packing problem with performance constraints of equilibrium," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 431(C), pages 166-174.
    2. Brimberg, Jack & Kalczynski, Pawel & Drezner, Zvi, 2024. "Different formulations of the gray pattern problem and their optimal solutions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 316(1), pages 61-71.
    3. Lai, Xiangjing & Hao, Jin-Kao & Yue, Dong & Lü, Zhipeng & Fu, Zhang-Hua, 2022. "Iterated dynamic thresholding search for packing equal circles into a circular container," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 299(1), pages 137-153.
    4. López, C.O. & Beasley, J.E., 2016. "A formulation space search heuristic for packing unequal circles in a fixed size circular container," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 251(1), pages 64-73.
    5. Papp, Dávid & Regős, Krisztina & Domokos, Gábor & Bozóki, Sándor, 2023. "The smallest mono-unstable convex polyhedron with point masses has 8 faces and 11 vertices," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 310(2), pages 511-517.
    6. Zhu, Dingju, 2016. "Quasi-human seniority-order algorithm for unequal circles packing," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 506-517.
    7. Wang, Yingcong & Wang, Yanfeng & Sun, Junwei & Huang, Chun & Zhang, Xuncai, 2019. "A stimulus–response-based allocation method for the circle packing problem with equilibrium constraints," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 522(C), pages 232-247.
    8. Frank J. Kampas & János D. Pintér & Ignacio Castillo, 2020. "Packing ovals in optimized regular polygons," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 175-196, May.
    9. Zhengguan Dai & Kathleen Xu & Melkior Ornik, 2021. "Repulsion-based p-dispersion with distance constraints in non-convex polygons," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 307(1), pages 75-91, December.
    10. Amirgaliyeva, Zhazira & Mladenović, Nenad & Todosijević, Raca & Urošević, Dragan, 2017. "Solving the maximum min-sum dispersion by alternating formulations of two different problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(2), pages 444-459.
    11. Xiangjing Lai & Jin-Kao Hao & Renbin Xiao & Fred Glover, 2023. "Perturbation-Based Thresholding Search for Packing Equal Circles and Spheres," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 35(4), pages 725-746, July.
    12. Bouzid, Mouaouia Cherif & Salhi, Said, 2020. "Packing rectangles into a fixed size circular container: Constructive and metaheuristic search approaches," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(3), pages 865-883.
    13. Akang Wang & Chrysanthos E. Gounaris, 2021. "On tackling reverse convex constraints for non-overlapping of unequal circles," Journal of Global Optimization, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 357-385, June.

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