About the choice of the variable to unassign in a decision repair algorithm

Cédric Pralet; Gérard Verfaillie

RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle (2005)

  • Volume: 39, Issue: 1, page 55-74
  • ISSN: 0399-0559

Abstract

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The decision repair algorithm (Jussien and Lhomme, Artificial Intelligence 139 (2002) 21–45), which has been designed to solve constraint satisfaction problems (CSP), can be seen, either (i) as an extension of the classical depth first tree search algorithm with the introduction of a free choice of the variable to which to backtrack in case of inconsistency, or (ii) as a local search algorithm in the space of the partial consistent variable assignments. or (iii) as a hybridisation between local search and constraint propagation. Experiments reported in Pralet and Verfailllie (2004) show that some heuristics for the choice of the variable to which to backtrack behave well on consistent instances and that other heuristics behave well on inconsistent ones. They show also that, despite its a priori incompleteness, decision repair, equipped with some specific heuristics, can solve within a limited time almost all the consistent and inconsistent randomly generated instances over the whole constrainedness spectrum. In this paper, we discuss the heuristics that could be used by decision repair to solve consistent instances, on the one hand, and inconsistent ones, on the other hand. Moreover, we establish that some specific heuristics make decision repair complete.

How to cite

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Pralet, Cédric, and Verfaillie, Gérard. "About the choice of the variable to unassign in a decision repair algorithm." RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle 39.1 (2005): 55-74. <http://eudml.org/doc/245142>.

@article{Pralet2005,
abstract = {The decision repair algorithm (Jussien and Lhomme, Artificial Intelligence 139 (2002) 21–45), which has been designed to solve constraint satisfaction problems (CSP), can be seen, either (i) as an extension of the classical depth first tree search algorithm with the introduction of a free choice of the variable to which to backtrack in case of inconsistency, or (ii) as a local search algorithm in the space of the partial consistent variable assignments. or (iii) as a hybridisation between local search and constraint propagation. Experiments reported in Pralet and Verfailllie (2004) show that some heuristics for the choice of the variable to which to backtrack behave well on consistent instances and that other heuristics behave well on inconsistent ones. They show also that, despite its a priori incompleteness, decision repair, equipped with some specific heuristics, can solve within a limited time almost all the consistent and inconsistent randomly generated instances over the whole constrainedness spectrum. In this paper, we discuss the heuristics that could be used by decision repair to solve consistent instances, on the one hand, and inconsistent ones, on the other hand. Moreover, we establish that some specific heuristics make decision repair complete.},
author = {Pralet, Cédric, Verfaillie, Gérard},
journal = {RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle},
keywords = {constraint satisfaction problem; depth first tree search; local search; constraint propagation; backtrack; heuristics; completeness; Constraint satisfaction problem},
language = {eng},
number = {1},
pages = {55-74},
publisher = {EDP-Sciences},
title = {About the choice of the variable to unassign in a decision repair algorithm},
url = {http://eudml.org/doc/245142},
volume = {39},
year = {2005},
}

TY - JOUR
AU - Pralet, Cédric
AU - Verfaillie, Gérard
TI - About the choice of the variable to unassign in a decision repair algorithm
JO - RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle
PY - 2005
PB - EDP-Sciences
VL - 39
IS - 1
SP - 55
EP - 74
AB - The decision repair algorithm (Jussien and Lhomme, Artificial Intelligence 139 (2002) 21–45), which has been designed to solve constraint satisfaction problems (CSP), can be seen, either (i) as an extension of the classical depth first tree search algorithm with the introduction of a free choice of the variable to which to backtrack in case of inconsistency, or (ii) as a local search algorithm in the space of the partial consistent variable assignments. or (iii) as a hybridisation between local search and constraint propagation. Experiments reported in Pralet and Verfailllie (2004) show that some heuristics for the choice of the variable to which to backtrack behave well on consistent instances and that other heuristics behave well on inconsistent ones. They show also that, despite its a priori incompleteness, decision repair, equipped with some specific heuristics, can solve within a limited time almost all the consistent and inconsistent randomly generated instances over the whole constrainedness spectrum. In this paper, we discuss the heuristics that could be used by decision repair to solve consistent instances, on the one hand, and inconsistent ones, on the other hand. Moreover, we establish that some specific heuristics make decision repair complete.
LA - eng
KW - constraint satisfaction problem; depth first tree search; local search; constraint propagation; backtrack; heuristics; completeness; Constraint satisfaction problem
UR - http://eudml.org/doc/245142
ER -

References

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  8. [8] N. Jussien and O. Lhomme, Local Search with Constraint Propagation and Conflict-based Heuristics. Artif. Intell. 139 (2002) 21–45. Zbl1015.68056
  9. [9] A. Mackworth, Constraint Satisfaction, in Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, S. Shapiro, Ed. John Wiley & Sons (1992) 285–293. 
  10. [10] C. Pralet and G. Verfailllie, Travelling in the World of Local Searches in the Space of Partial Assignments, in Proc. of the International Conference on Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimisation Problems (CP-AI-OR-04). Nice, France (2004) 240–255. Zbl1094.68652
  11. [11] S. Prestwich, Combining the Scalability of Local Search with the Pruning Techniques of Systematic Search. Ann. Oper. Res. 115 (2002) 51–72. Zbl1013.90104
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