Improving the efficiency of a best-first bottom-up approach for the Constrained 2D Cutting Problem

Abstract

This work introduces several improvements in the solution of the Constrained 2D Cutting Problem. Such improvements combine the detection of dominated and duplicated cutting patterns with the implementation of parallel approaches for best-first search methods. The analysis of symmetries and dominances among the cutting patterns is able to discard some non-optimal or redundant builds, thus reducing the search space to be explored. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that when the domination/duplication rules are applied to an efficient parallel approach, the obtained reduction in the number of managed nodes involves a noticeable decrease in the computational effort associated with the final search process.