Metal cutting with hybrid genetic algorithm

A hybrid genetic approach is proposed for the metal cutting process. Metal cutting can be modeled as a two-dimensional strip-packing problem with rotation allowed, and is known to be NP-complete. With a heuristic placement method, the complicated and highly constrained cutting problem is transformed into a simple permutation problem with a much smaller searching domain, solved by an order-based genetic algorithm. In our simulations, it is demonstrated that optimal results can be duly obtained in a reasonably short period of time.