A particle swarm optimization approach for the bi-objective load balancing problem

Abstract We propose in this paper a two level loading problem that consists in packing items into containers, then stowing these containers in an aircraft while maximizing both of the total weight and the priority of the loaded cargo. At the same time, the center of gravity should be within a reasonable distance from the balance ideal position. We state the mathematical formulation of the problem. The minimization of the number of containers is tackled using a multi-objective placement heuristic and the loading process performs a discrete multi-objective particle swarm optimization approach. An experimental investigation is performed on various test instances to illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm in solving the bi-objective loading problem.