Where to Put A Rower: A Novel and Practical Solution to Dragon Boat Partition Problem

Abstract

We present a novel and practical approach to the Dragon Boat Partition Problem (DBP), in which we need to assign rowers to the opposite sides of a dragon boat, such that certain requirements are satisfied. An example of the requirements is that weights on the right side and left side are balanced. While DBP is essentially an integer partition problem, it has its own unique characteristics. Our approach is greedy and heuristic and tackles DBP effectively, showing its practicality in real applications. The performance of our proposed approach is demonstrated through a set of simulated experiments and various related issued are discussed.