Approximation algorithms for the oriented two-dimensional bin packing problem

Given a set of rectangular items which may not be rotated and an unlimited number of identical rectangular bins, we consider the problem of packing each item into a bin so that no two items overlap and the number of required bins is minimized. The problem is strongly NP-hard and finds practical applications in cutting and packing. We discuss a simple deterministic approximation algorithm which is used in the initialization of a tabu search approach. We then present a tabu search algorithm and analyze its average performance through extensive computational experiments. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.