A Constraint for Bin Packing

Paul Shaw

Abstract: We introduce a constraint for one-dimensional bin packing. This constraint uses propagation rules incorporating knapsack-based reasoning, as well as a lower bound on the number of bins needed. We show that this constraint can significantly reduce search on bin packing problems. We also demonstrate that when coupled with a standard bin packing search strategy, our constraint can be a competitive alternative to established operations research bin packing algorithms.