An efficient metaheuristic for multi-dimensional multi-container packing

In this paper, we introduce GASP - Greedy Adaptive Search Procedure, a metaheuristic able to efficiently address two and three-dimensional multiple container packing problems. GASP combines the simplicity of greedy algorithms with learning mechanisms aimed to guide the overall method towards good solutions. Extensive experiments indicate that GASP attains near-optimal solutions in very short computational times, and improves state-of-the-art results in comparable computational times.