Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Packing Algorithms May Save the Planet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that-might-be-an-overstatement dept.

An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist reports on how competitions to devise better packing algorithms could help cut the environmental impact of deliveries and shipping. A new record setter at packing differently-sized discs into the smallest space without overlapping them has potential to be applied to real world 3D problems, researchers claim." Ok the title might be a little ridiculous, but the ridiculous packaging used to ship a few tiny objects by some shippers is pretty shameful.

4 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Are algorithms the issue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find the development of new algorithms interesting in itself, and I suspect that superior packing algorithms will have a number of interesting applications; but I wonder if they'll actually have much effect on shippers in the nearish term.

    A great deal of heterogenous object packing is done by humans, since the scale required to make packing assorted objects by machine is quite large(even places with automated warehouses often have a human do the packing at the end; because humans are really quite versatile object manipulators), and humans are actually pretty good at object packing. Not perfect; but quite good.

    I'd suspect that inefficient packing has less to do with packing being hard, and more to do with the desire to standardize on a limited number of box sizes, to ease inventory management, which is a quite different problem.

    1. Re:Are algorithms the issue? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Its not "practically impossible" to find the best solution. It is quite possible. The issue is that finding the optimal solution takes O(2^n), where n is the number of objects to be packed. So, for any large value of n, the calculation will take a prohibitively long time, but it will terminate.

      So they're not practical to solve--in other words, practically impossible.

      This is in contrast to undecidable problems, which really are "practically impossible" to solve.

      That would be a case of *literally* impossible to solve. Which means that they're practically impossible as well, of course.

  2. Obvious by JPLemme · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does HP really need an algorithm to tell them not to ship fifteen single sheets of paper in fifteen 9"x12"x2" cardboard boxes?

    They need an algorithm that prevents them from hiring dummies in their shipping department.

  3. Re:Packing algorithms don't just apply to shipping by swahebrumaf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Something the summariser seems to have missed.. This kind of problem comes up in a lot of different places.

    Another thing that is forgotten... When a process can be optimized, it normally results in price-cuts which result in heavier use of the process. In the end more resources are used than before the optimization, opposite to the original intent.