Projects / Programmes
Optimization of packaging, loading and transportation of pre-fabricated building elements
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 2.07.00 |
Engineering sciences and technologies |
Computer science and informatics |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| P170 |
Natural sciences and mathematics |
Computer science, numerical analysis, systems, control |
Metaheuristics, optimization, parallelism, NP-hard problem, hardware implementation
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
22314 |
PhD Peter Korošec |
Computer science and informatics |
Head |
2008 - 2010 |
238 |
Organisations (1)
| no. |
Code |
Research organisation |
City |
Registration number |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
0106 |
Jožef Stefan Institute |
Ljubljana |
5051606000 |
91,415 |
Abstract
Applied postdoctoral project is focused into development and realization of optimization procedure of packaging and loading of pre-fabricated building elements into a restricted space, e.g. transport vehicle or warehouse. The result of the optimization is cheaper transportation and/or lower cost of storage. Packaging and loading are mutually dependent processes. At packaging, where different sizes and irregular shapes of packages are allowed, the influence on loading process is even bigger. At loading on transport vehicles, a destination of packages will also be considered. In case of multiple persons placing an order, a decision will have to be made, if packages of different recipients are being loaded on the same transport vehicles or different ones. Regarding transportation, the cheapest route between supplier and recipient can be chosen. Since there is no 3D simulator for packaging and loading of general packages, a suitable 3D simulator will have to be implemented. 3D simulator will simulate a packaging process, with an optimization of packaging of individual elements of diverse shapes into packages, and simulate a loading process, with optimization of packages loading. For solving the described problems, different metaheuristic optimization approaches and their variants will be evaluated. Those with best suitability for solving individual problems will be chosen. For the speeding up the execution of optimization and easier implementation into company’s production process a possibility of parallel and hardware implementation will be researched. With the transfer of gained knowledge and experiences from the field of optimization and simulations into the industrial environment, we will contribute to the development of metaheuristic methods for optimization of packaging, loading and transportation of pre-fabricated building elements. At the same time a field of modern metaheuristic optimization methods will be broaden. The main results of this project will enable users, like DOMEL d. d. and TRIMO d. d., to lower the costs of packaging, storage and transportation. The outcome of the project could be directly used at solving similar problems on the fields of container ship loading, plane cargo management, pallet loading, warehouse management, etc. The newly acquired knowledge will be later transferred to the students at the Faculty of mathematics, science and information technologies, University of Primorska, where the leader of the project cooperates as an assistant professor.
Significance for science
Metaheuristic optimization methods are modern heuristic methods applicable to complex optimization problems that are difficult or even impossible to be solved by using traditional well-understood approaches for different reasons: either we have not enough knowledge to describe the problem with a mathematical or a physics model, the problem is computationally too complex, or the problem's solution space is too large or highly multimodal. Methods that imitate two natural principles, evolution and stigmergy, whose efficiency have been already proved as very efficient for solving complex, mainly NP-hard, optimization problems, were discussed. The problem of packaging and loading was solved as a general 3D knapsack problem. This was a new contribution to the science, because there are only a few attempts of solving 3D orthogonal knapsack problem.
Also a 3D simulator was developed, which was used to simulate individual solutions. This enabled us to develop and evaluate the proper optimization method. With the transfer of gained knowledge and experiences from the field of optimization and simulations into the industrial environment, it will be contributed to the development of metaheuristic methods for optimization of packaging, loading and transportation of pre-fabricated building elements.
The extra emphesis was given to the development and testing of sequential and newly developed parallel algorithms on different real-world problems. With this a field of modern metaheuristic optimization methods was additionally improved.
Significance for the country
Optimizer, as the main visible result of this project enables companies to lower the costs of packaging, storage and transportation. The price of products storage and their transportation from manufacturer to customer will be significantly decreased and consequently the competitiveness of the company will increase.
In general we got a tool, which will be able to quickly and optimally install objects of irregular shapes in some bounded space. As we know, time and space – not only for industry, but for the society in general – are very expensive and with this tool, we will contribute to a greater use of both.
The outcome of the project could be directly used at solving similar problems on the fields of container ship loading (harbors), plane cargo management (airports), pallet loading, warehouse management, etc.
Probably even more important is the fact that we gained knowledge and solutions, which will enable us to take advantage of new computer technology. They will contribute to fast and quality solving of different optimization problems, which can be found in our society and especially in industry.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
