Enhancing Robotics Online 3D Bin Packing: A Comparative Study of Conventional Heuristic and Deep Reinforcement Learning Approaches

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Heng Xiong - , Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Author)
  • Kai Ding - , Robert Bosch GmbH (Author)
  • Wan Ding - , Robert Bosch GmbH (Author)
  • Xuchong Qiu - , Robert Bosch GmbH (Author)
  • Klaus Janschek - , Chair of Automation Engineering (Author)
  • Jianfeng Xu - , Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Author)

Abstract

Robotic object packing holds a wide array of practical applications across logistics and manufacturing sectors. The online 3D Bin Packing Problem (BPP) is a challenging task that involves online packing of three-dimensional boxes into a container while considering constraints and objectives. Unlike the offline version, where all boxes are known in advance, the online variant requires decisions about how to pack each box as it arrives, without prior knowledge of upcoming boxes.To maximize space utilization, our study explores two distinct strategies: conventional heuristics-based algorithms and a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based approach. For the heuristic strategy, we propose four heuristic criteria alongside two variants of multi-objective optimization (MOO) algorithms. Quantitative experiments reveal that MOO outperforms single-objective approaches for online bin packing. In our DRL-based approach, we introduce a framework that leverages a candidate map that indicates the potentially feasible placements, ensuring a balanced exploration and exploitation in the considerable discrete action space. Experiments demonstrate the superior performance of our DRL-based approach compared to both DRL-based baseline methods and conventional approaches. Additionally, we discuss the limitations of DRL-based methods and offer practical recommendations for real-world applications.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, CASE 2024
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages4083-4089
Number of pages7
ISBN (electronic)979-8-3503-5851-3
ISBN (print)979-8-3503-5852-0
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesIEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering
ISSN2161-8070

Conference

Title20th IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, CASE 2024
Duration28 August - 1 September 2024
CityBari
CountryItaly

External IDs

Ieee 10.1109/CASE59546.2024.10711723

Keywords

Keywords

  • Three-dimensional displays, Computer aided software engineering, Heuristic algorithms, Containers, Deep reinforcement learning, Explosions, Manufacturing, Robots, Optimization, Logistics