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Finding an Optimal LEGO® Brick Layout of Voxelized 3D Object Using a Genetic Algorithm

Published: 11 July 2015 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm for a LEGO(R) brick layout problem. The task is to build a given 3D object with LEGO(R) bricks. A brick layout is modeled as a solution to a combinatorial optimization problem, through intermediate voxelization, which tries to maximize the connectivity and then minimize the number of used bricks. We attack the problem in the context of genetic search. The proposed randomized greedy algorithm produces initial solutions, and the solutions are effectively improved by an evolutionary process. New domain-specific methods are proposed as well, which include a random boundary mutation and a thickening approach. We tested our algorithm on various objects collected from the web. Experimental results showed that the algorithm produces efficient, and mostly optimal solutions for benchmark models. Unlike some previous works, our algorithm is not limited to assemble few specific objects, but it can deal with diverse kind of objects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most extensive empirical study on the problem.

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cover image ACM Conferences
GECCO '15: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
July 2015
1496 pages
ISBN:9781450334723
DOI:10.1145/2739480
Publication rights licensed to ACM. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of a national government. As such, the Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

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New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 11 July 2015

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Author Tags

  1. LEGO
  2. brick layout problem
  3. empirical study
  4. genetic algorithm
  5. local search

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  • Research-article

Funding Sources

  • Korea Ministry of Science ICT & Future Planning(MSIP) / National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)
  • Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism(MCST) and Korea Creative Content Agency(KOCCA) in the Culture Technology(CT) Research

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GECCO '15
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GECCO '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 182 of 505 submissions, 36%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 1,669 of 4,410 submissions, 38%

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  • (2024)Learning to Build by Building Your Own InstructionsComputer Vision – ECCV 202410.1007/978-3-031-73024-5_16(261-278)Online publication date: 24-Nov-2024
  • (2024)TreeSBA: Tree-Transformer for Self-supervised Sequential Brick AssemblyComputer Vision – ECCV 202410.1007/978-3-031-73016-0_3(35-51)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2024
  • (2023)Computational Design of LEGO® Sketch ArtACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/361830642:6(1-15)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2023
  • (2022)Break and Make: Interactive Structural Understanding Using LEGO BricksComputer Vision – ECCV 202210.1007/978-3-031-19815-1_6(90-107)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2022
  • (2019)Automatic Generation of Vivid LEGO Architectural SculpturesComputer Graphics Forum10.1111/cgf.1360338:6(31-42)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2019
  • (2018)Split-and-Merge-Based Genetic Algorithm (SM-GA) for LEGO Brick Sculpture OptimizationIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2018.28590396(40429-40438)Online publication date: 2018
  • (2017)Legorization with multi-height bricks from silhouette-fitted voxelizationProceedings of the Computer Graphics International Conference10.1145/3095140.3095180(1-6)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2017

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