HighLevel Modelling and Reformulation of Constraint Satisfaction Problems.pdfVIP

HighLevel Mo delling and Reformulation of Constraint Satisfaction Problems Brahim Hnich Computer Science Division Department of Information Science Uppsala University Box S Uppsala Sweden BrahimHnichdisuuse Intro duction The mo delling pro cess of constraint satisfaction problems CSPs as constraint programs requires sophisticated reasoning skills and involves crucial decisions on which variable and value representations to cho ose on which constraint for mulation to state and on which solution methods to employ Furthermore the tight interaction b etween representation constraint formulation and solution metho ds adds another degree of complexity to the mo delling task For instance the choice of the constraint formulation is strongly aected by the choice of the representation of variables and values and by the choice of the solution meth o ds In addition the p erformance of solution metho ds is sensitive to the problem instances Thus mo delling combinatorial optimisation problems so as to solve them in more ecient ways is a ma jor challenge for constraint pr ogr amming CP To address the model lingtime pr oblem ever more expressive and declara tive constraint programming languages are b eing designed providing traditional algebraic notations such as sums and pro ducts over indexed expressions and useful datatyp es such as sets arrays and enumerations to enable a more nat ural expression of the constraints freeing the programmer thus more and more from traditional and often lowlevel computing obligations such as the writing of iterativerecursive co de or the enco ding of concepts as numb ers To address the solvingtime pr oblem alternate mo dels or formulations can b e formu