Publication

Exploiting symmetries within constraint satisfaction search

Journal Article (2001)

Journal

Artificial Intelligence

Pages

133-163

Volume

129

Number

1

Doc link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0004-3702(01)00104-7

File

Download the digital copy of the doc pdf document

Abstract

Symmetry often appears in real-world constraint satisfaction problems, but strategies for exploiting it are only beginning to be developed. Here, a framework for exploiting symmetry within depth-first search is proposed, leading to two heuristics for variable selection and a domain pruning procedure. These strategies are then applied to two highly symmetric combinatorial problems, namely the Ramsey problem and the generation of balanced incomplete block designs. Experimental results show that these general-purpose strategies can compete with, and in some cases outperform, previous more ad hoc procedures.

Categories

robots.

Author keywords

symmetry, constraint satisfaction, heuristics, nogoods

Scientific reference

P. Meseguer and C. Torras. Exploiting symmetries within constraint satisfaction search. Artificial Intelligence, 129(1): 133-163, 2001.