The investigators will develop algorithms for stowing cargo on movement-and-storage devices such as airplanes, trucks, ships, shelves, and pallets so that the load is safely balanced and stable. Such problems have this general form: Given a structure and a set of forces and moments, where should those forces and moments be applied to the structure? This complements the traditional design questions of mechanical engineering: Given a set of worst-case forces and moments, design a structure to bear them. The investigators have coined the term "combinatorial mechanics" to describe the issues to be studied. The problems involve mechanics because of the concern for the center-of-gravity, deformation, natural frequency, and so on. The problems are combinatorial because the forces generally arise from the weight of items to be stored, and so the resultant forces on the structure depend on how the items are arranged. The approach to this research represents an innovative departure from traditional load planning approaches. The development of a field of combinatorial mechanics could open the door to novel interpretations of logistics problems of this nature.
