Dr. Yunqing Rao received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical manufacturing and automation in 1989, 1992 and 1999, respectively, from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. From 2004 to 2005, he studied at University of Oxford, UK, as a visiting scholar. He is currently a professor at School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, HUST. He has authored over 200 journal articles. His research interests include operation optimization of manufacturing systems, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and intelligent manufacturing.

Mr. Qiang Luo received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the Taiyuan University of Technology, China, in 2016, and received M.S. degree in mechanical engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China, in 2019. He is currently pursuing Ph.D. degree at School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, HUST. His current research interests include computational intelligence, cutting and packing problem and other combinatorial optimization problems.

Introduction to the packing and cutting problem.- Intelligent algorithms for rectangular packing problem.- Intelligent algorithms for irregular packing problem.- Novel algorithms for packing problem.- Solutions for new variants of packing problem.

This book investigates in detail the two-dimensional packing and cutting problems in the field of operations research and management science. It introduces the mathematical models and intelligent solving algorithms for these problems, as well as their engineering applications. Most intelligent methods reported in this book have already been applied in reality, which can provide reference for the engineers. The presented novel methods for the two-dimensional packing problem provide a new way to solve the problem for researchers interested in operations research or computer science. This book also introduces three new variants of packing problems and their solving methods, which offer a different research direction. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in the solving methods for packing and cutting problems, researchers investigating the application of intelligent algorithms, scientists studying the theory of the operations research andCAM software developers working on integration of packing and cutting problem.