CONJURE: Automatic generation of constraint models from problem specifications (extended abstract)

Özgür Akgün, Alan M. Frisch, Ian P. Gent, Christopher Jefferson, Ian Miguel, Peter Nightingale

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

When solving a combinatorial problem, the formulation or model of the problem is critical to the efficiency of the solver. Automating the modelling process has long been of interest given the expertise and time required to develop an effective model of a particular problem. We describe a method to automatically produce constraint models from a problem specification written in the abstract constraint specification language ESSENCE. Our approach is to incrementally refine the specification into a concrete model by applying a chosen refinement rule at each step. Any non-trivial specification may be refined in multiple ways, creating a diverse space of models to choose from. The handling of symmetries is a particularly important aspect of automated modelling. We show how modelling symmetries may be broken automatically as they enter a model during refinement, removing the need for an expensive symmetry detection step following model formulation. Our approach is implemented in a system called CONJURE. We compare the models produced by CONJURE to constraint models from the literature that are known to be effective. Our empirical results confirm that CONJURE can reproduce successfully the kernels of the constraint models of 42 benchmark problems found in the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2023)
EditorsEdith Elkind
PublisherInternational Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence
Pages6833-6838
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781956792034
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Aug 2023
Event32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 2023 - Macao, China
Duration: 19 Aug 202325 Aug 2023

Publication series

NameIJCAI International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Volume2023-August
ISSN (Print)1045-0823

Conference

Conference32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 2023
Country/TerritoryChina
CityMacao
Period19/08/2325/08/23

Keywords

  • Constraint satisfaction and optimization: CSO: constraint programming
  • Constraint satisfaction and optimization: CSO: modeling

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'CONJURE: Automatic generation of constraint models from problem specifications (extended abstract)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this