Block Relocation Problem Considering Maximum Feasible Cleaning Moves with One Degree of Freedom

The look-ahead algorithm (LA) tackles the block relocation problem (BRP) prevalent in industries like container shipping and others utilizing inventory systems for storing identical cubic items. The BRP involves retrieving identically-sized items in a specified order with the fewest moves from last-in-first-out (LIFO) stacks. An extension of the LA, considering an empty stack in the original bay configuration (one degree of freedom, 1-DOF) with and without a cleaning move, was introduced. The parent LA algorithm and its two extension versions were previously tested. Results showed that the LA extension, featuring one degree of freedom and one cleaning move, outperforms both the original LA algorithm and the extension without cleaning moves. This study further explores the LA extension with one degree of freedom and the maximum feasible number of cleaning moves. Comparative testing is conducted against the original LA algorithm and different versions of the LA extension algorithm.