Simple Tabu Thresholding and the Pallet Loading Problem.

Rectangle packing problems are particularly challenging for local search methods as they frequently give rise to spiky solution landscapes. This paper is concerned with the development of a simple tabu thresholding algorithm for the pallet loading problem, with the ultimate objective of comparing it with a non-monotonic version of simulated annealing. Although the focus of the discussion is problem specific, some of the conclusions are relevant to the implementation of simple tabu thresholding in any problem domain.