Genetic Algorithms are widely used in many different optimization problems including layout design. The layout of the shelves play an important role in the total sales metrics for superstores since this affects the customers' shopping behaviour. This paper employed a genetic algorithm based approach to design shelf layout of superstores. The layout design problem was tackled by using a novel chromosome representation which takes many different parameters to prevent dead-ends and improve shelf visibility into consideration. Results show that the approach can produce reasonably good layout designs in very short amounts of time.
We present a deep, fully convolutional neural network that learns to route a circuit layout net with appropriate choice of metal tracks and wire class combinations. Inputs to the network are the encoded layouts containing spatial location of pins to be routed. After 15 fully convolutional stages followed by a score comparator, the network outputs 8 layout layers (corresponding to 4 route layers, 3 via layers and an identity-mapped pin layer) which are then decoded to obtain the routed layouts. We formulate this as a binary segmentation problem on a per-pixel per-layer basis, where the network is trained to correctly classify pixels in each layout layer to be 'on' or 'off'. To demonstrate learnability of layout design rules, we train the network on a dataset of 50,000 train and 10,000 validation samples that we generate based on certain pre-defined layout constraints. Precision, recall and $F_1$ score metrics are used to track the training progress. Our network achieves $F_1\approx97\%$ on the train set and $F_1\approx92\%$ on the validation set. We use PyTorch for implementing our model. Code is made publicly available at https://github.com/sjain-stanford/deep-route .
Layout design with complex constraints is a challenging problem to solve due to the non-uniqueness of the solution and the difficulties in incorporating the constraints into the conventional optimization-based methods. In this paper, we propose a design method based on the recently developed machine learning technique, Variational Autoencoder (VAE). We utilize the learning capability of the VAE to learn the constraints and the generative capability of the VAE to generate design candidates that automatically satisfy all the constraints. As such, no constraints need to be imposed during the design stage. In addition, we show that the VAE network is also capable of learning the underlying physics of the design problem, leading to an efficient design tool that does not need any physical simulation once the network is constructed. We demonstrated the performance of the method on two cases: inverse design of surface diffusion induced morphology change and mask design for optical microlithography.