Container Loading for Nonorthogonal Objects with Stability and Load Bearing Strength Compliance

Abstract

A feasible solution for a container loading problem is the exact order, position and orientation in which the objects are loaded into the container. However, the more constraints are taken into account, the more complex the problem is. Several algorithms have been proposed to load objects with different shapes and taking into account a few constraints. Nevertheless, most of the approaches restrict the shape to be orthogonal (i.e., standard boxes) and constraints like stability or load bearing strength were not considered. The aim of this paper is to provide an approach to solve the problem of loading orthogonal and non-orthogonal boxes, considering them as polyhedral. In addition, our proposal deals with constraints on the dimensions of the container, whether every box can be rotated in any of the three dimensions, the maximum load bearing strength and also the minimum stability required. To solve the problem with the characteristics mentioned above a data structure is proposed to represent the i-th state of the container's loading process by storing the height values and the remaining load bearing strength of the objects inside the container.