Constraint-Based Filtering and Evaluation of CSP Search Trees

Maximilian Bels, Sven Löffler, Ilja Becker, Petra Hofstedt

2023

Abstract

Using Constraint Programming (CP) real world problems can be described conveniently in a declarative way with constraints in a so-called constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). Finite domain CSPs (FD-CSPs) are one form of CSPs, where the domains of the variables are finite. Such FD-CSPs are mostly evaluated by a search nested with propagation, where the search process can be represented by search trees. Since search can quickly become very time-consuming, especially with large variable domains (solving CSPs is NP-hard in general), heuristics are used to control the search, which in many cases — depending on the problem — allow to achieve a performance gain. In this paper, we present a new method for filtering and evaluating search trees of FD-CSPs. Our new tree filtering method is based on the idea of formulating and evaluating filters as constraints over FD-CSP search trees. The constraint-based formulation of filter criteria proves to be very flexible. Our new technique was integrated into the Visual Constraint Solver (VCS) tool, which allows the solution process of CSPs to be followed interactively and step by step through a suitable visualization.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bels M., Löffler S., Becker I. and Hofstedt P. (2023). Constraint-Based Filtering and Evaluation of CSP Search Trees. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-623-1, pages 220-227. DOI: 10.5220/0011641100003393

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart23,
author={Maximilian Bels and Sven Löffler and Ilja Becker and Petra Hofstedt},
title={Constraint-Based Filtering and Evaluation of CSP Search Trees},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART,},
year={2023},
pages={220-227},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011641100003393},
isbn={978-989-758-623-1},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 3: ICAART,
TI - Constraint-Based Filtering and Evaluation of CSP Search Trees
SN - 978-989-758-623-1
AU - Bels M.
AU - Löffler S.
AU - Becker I.
AU - Hofstedt P.
PY - 2023
SP - 220
EP - 227
DO - 10.5220/0011641100003393