Minizinc Handbook Release 2.3.1

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Minizinc Handbook Release 2.3.1 MiniZinc Handbook Release 2.3.1 Peter J. Stuckey, Kim Marrio, Guido Tack Jul 10, 2019 Contents 1 Overview 3 1.1 Introduction 5 1.1.1 Structure ....................................... 5 1.1.2 How to Read This ................................... 6 1.2 Installation 7 1.2.1 Microsoft Windows .................................. 7 1.2.2 Linux .......................................... 8 1.2.2.1 Snap ...................................... 8 1.2.2.2 AppImage ................................... 8 1.2.2.3 Archive .................................... 9 1.2.3 Apple macOS ..................................... 9 1.2.4 Adding Third-party Solvers .............................. 9 1.3 First steps with MiniZinc 11 1.3.1 The MiniZinc IDE ................................... 11 1.3.2 The MiniZinc command line tool .......................... 16 2 A MiniZinc Tutorial 19 2.1 Basic Modelling in MiniZinc 21 2.1.1 Our First Example ................................... 21 2.1.2 An Arithmetic Optimisation Example ........................ 25 2.1.3 Datafiles and Assertions ............................... 26 2.1.4 Real Number Solving ................................. 29 2.1.5 Basic structure of a model .............................. 31 2.2 More Complex Models 35 2.2.1 Arrays and Sets .................................... 35 2.2.2 Global Constraints .................................. 45 2.2.3 Conditional Expressions ............................... 46 2.2.4 Enumerated Types .................................. 48 2.2.5 Complex Constraints ................................. 50 2.2.6 Set Constraints .................................... 56 2.2.7 Putting it all together ................................. 58 2.3 Predicates and Functions 61 2.3.1 Global Constraints .................................. 61 2.3.1.1 Alldifferent .................................. 61 2.3.1.2 Cumulative .................................. 61 2.3.1.3 Table ..................................... 63 2.3.1.4 Regular .................................... 65 i 2.3.2 Defining Predicates .................................. 68 2.3.3 Defining Functions .................................. 70 2.3.4 Reflection Functions ................................. 72 2.3.5 Local Variables .................................... 73 2.3.6 Context ........................................ 75 2.3.7 Local Constraints ................................... 76 2.3.8 Domain Reflection Functions ............................. 77 2.3.9 Scope ......................................... 79 2.4 Option Types 81 2.4.1 Declaring and Using Option Types .......................... 81 2.4.2 Hidden Option Types ................................. 82 2.5 Search 85 2.5.1 Finite Domain Search ................................. 85 2.5.2 Search Annotations .................................. 89 2.5.3 Annotations ...................................... 91 2.5.4 Restart ......................................... 92 2.5.5 Warm Starts ...................................... 94 2.6 Effective Modelling Practices in MiniZinc 97 2.6.1 Variable Bounds .................................... 97 2.6.2 Effective Generators ................................. 98 2.6.3 Redundant Constraints ................................100 2.6.4 Modelling Choices ..................................101 2.6.5 Multiple Modelling and Channels . 103 2.6.6 Symmetry .......................................105 2.6.6.1 Static Symmetry Breaking . 105 2.6.6.2 Other Examples of Symmetry . 107 2.7 Boolean Satisfiability Modelling in MiniZinc 109 2.7.1 Modelling Integers ..................................109 2.7.2 Modelling Disequality ................................110 2.7.3 Modelling Cardinality ................................111 2.8 FlatZinc and Flattening 119 2.8.1 Flattening Expressions ................................119 2.8.1.1 Simplification and Evaluation . 120 2.8.1.2 Defining Subexpressions . 120 2.8.1.3 FlatZinc constraint form . 121 2.8.1.4 Bounds analysis ................................121 2.8.1.5 Objectives ...................................122 2.8.2 Linear Expressions ..................................122 2.8.3 Unrolling Expressions .................................123 2.8.4 Arrays .........................................124 2.8.5 Reification .......................................126 2.8.6 Predicates .......................................129 2.8.7 Let Expressions ....................................131 3 User Manual 135 3.1 The MiniZinc Command Line Tool 137 ii 3.1.1 Basic Usage ......................................137 3.1.2 Adding Solvers ....................................138 3.1.2.1 Configuration files ..............................138 3.1.2.2 Configuration for MIP solvers . 139 3.1.3 Options ........................................139 3.1.3.1 General options ................................139 3.1.3.2 Solving options ................................140 3.1.3.3 Flattener input options ............................141 Flattener two-pass options . 142 Flattener output options ............................142 3.1.3.4 Solution output options . 143 3.1.4 User Configuration Files ...............................144 3.2 The MiniZinc IDE 147 3.2.1 Editing files ......................................147 3.2.1.1 Editing functions ...............................147 3.2.1.2 Fonts and dark mode .............................148 3.2.2 Configuring and Running a Solver . 148 3.2.2.1 Running a model ...............................148 3.2.2.2 Solver configurations .............................149 3.2.2.3 Automatic Solution Checking . 151 3.2.2.4 Compiling a model ..............................151 3.2.3 Working With Projects ................................152 3.2.4 Submitting Solutions to Online Courses . 152 3.2.5 Configuration Options ................................155 3.2.5.1 Locating the MiniZinc installation . 155 3.2.5.2 Adding Third-Party Solvers . 155 Configuring existing solvers . 155 Adding new solvers ...............................155 3.3 Solving Technologies and Solver Backends 159 3.3.1 Constraint Programming Solvers . 159 3.3.1.1 Gecode ....................................159 3.3.1.2 Chuffed ....................................159 3.3.1.3 OR-Tools ...................................160 3.3.2 Mixed-Integer Programming Solvers . 160 3.3.2.1 MIP-Aware Modeling (But Mostly Useful for All Backends) . 160 3.3.2.2 Useful Flattening Parameters . 161 3.3.2.3 Some Solver Options and Changed Default Values . 162 3.3.2.4 Subtour Elimination Constraints . 162 3.3.2.5 Unified Domains (MIPdomains) . 162 3.3.2.6 Indicator Constraints .............................162 3.3.2.7 Pools of User Cuts and Lazy Constraints . 163 3.3.2.8 Warm Starts ..................................163 3.3.3 Non-linear Solvers ..................................163 3.4 Automatic Solution Checking 165 3.4.1 Basic checker models .................................166 3.4.2 Detailed feedback ...................................167 3.4.3 Instance data in checker models . 169 3.4.4 Checking optimisation problems . 170 3.4.5 Hidden variables ...................................170 iii 3.5 Globalizer 173 3.5.1 Basic Usage ......................................173 3.5.2 Caveats ........................................175 3.5.3 Supported Constraints ................................175 3.5.4 Using Globalizer in the MiniZinc IDE . 176 3.5.5 How it works .....................................177 3.5.6 Performance tips ...................................178 3.5.7 Limitations / Future work ..............................179 3.6 FindMUS 181 3.6.1 Basic Usage ......................................181 3.6.1.1 Commandline arguments . 181 3.6.1.2 Example ....................................183 3.6.2 Using FindMUS in the MiniZinc IDE . 186 3.6.3 How it works .....................................189 3.6.4 Performance tips ...................................189 3.6.5 Limitations / Future work ..............................189 3.7 Using MiniZinc in Jupyter Notebooks 191 3.7.1 Installation ......................................191 3.7.2 Basic usage ......................................191 3.8 Python Interface 195 3.9 Installation from Source Code 197 3.9.1 Installation Instructions for Microsoft Windows . 197 3.9.1.1 MiniZinc ...................................197 3.9.1.2 MiniZinc IDE .................................198 3.9.1.3 Gecode ....................................198 3.9.1.4 Chuffed ....................................199 3.9.1.5 COIN-OR CBC ................................200 3.9.2 Installation Instructions for Linux and macOS . 201 3.9.2.1 MiniZinc ...................................201 3.9.2.2 MiniZinc IDE .................................201 3.9.2.3 Gecode ....................................202 3.9.2.4 OR Tools ...................................203 3.9.2.5 Chuffed ....................................203 3.9.2.6 COIN-OR CBC ................................204 3.9.2.7 SCIP ......................................205 3.9.3 Installation Instructions for Webassembly / JavaScript . 206 4 Reference Manual 207 4.1 Specification of MiniZinc 209 4.1.1 Introduction ......................................209 4.1.1.1 Original authors. ...............................210 4.1.2 Notation ........................................210 4.1.3 Overview of a Model .................................211 4.1.3.1 Evaluation Phases ..............................211 4.1.3.2 Run-time Outcomes .............................211 4.1.3.3 Output .....................................212 iv 4.1.4 Syntax Overview ...................................213 4.1.4.1 Character Set .................................213
Recommended publications
  • Estimating Parallel Runtimes for Randomized Algorithms in Constraint Solving Charlotte Truchet, Alejandro Arbelaez, Florian Richoux, Philippe Codognet
    Estimating parallel runtimes for randomized algorithms in constraint solving Charlotte Truchet, Alejandro Arbelaez, Florian Richoux, Philippe Codognet To cite this version: Charlotte Truchet, Alejandro Arbelaez, Florian Richoux, Philippe Codognet. Estimating par- allel runtimes for randomized algorithms in constraint solving. Journal of Heuristics, Springer Verlag, 2015, pp.1-36. <10.1007/s10732-015-9292-3>. <hal-01248168> HAL Id: hal-01248168 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01248168 Submitted on 24 Dec 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. Journal of Heuristics manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Estimating Parallel Runtimes for Randomized Algorithms in Constraint Solving Charlotte Truchet · Alejandro Arbelaez · Florian Richoux · Philippe Codognet the date of receipt and acceptance should be inserted later Abstract This paper presents a detailed analysis of the scalability and par- allelization of Local Search algorithms for constraint-based and SAT (Boolean satisfiability) solvers. We propose a framework to estimate the parallel perfor- mance of a given algorithm by analyzing the runtime behavior of its sequential version. Indeed, by approximating the runtime distribution of the sequential process with statistical methods, the runtime behavior of the parallel process can be predicted by a model based on order statistics.
    [Show full text]
  • Aggregation and Garbage Collection for Online Optimization⋆
    Aggregation and Garbage Collection for Online Optimization? Alexander Ek1;2[0000−0002−8744−4805], Maria Garcia de la Banda1[0000−0002−6666−514X], Andreas Schutt2[0000−0001−5452−4086], Peter J. Stuckey1;2[0000−0003−2186−0459], and Guido Tack1;2[0000−0003−2186−0459] 1 Monash University, Australia fAlexander.Ek,Maria.GarciadelaBanda,Peter.Stuckey,[email protected] 2 Data61, CSIRO, Australia [email protected] Abstract Online optimization approaches are popular for solving op- timization problems where not all data is considered at once, because it is computationally prohibitive, or because new data arrives in an on- going fashion. Online approaches solve the problem iteratively, with the amount of data growing in each iteration. Over time, many problem variables progressively become realized, i.e., their values were fixed in the past iterations and they can no longer affect the solution. If the solv- ing approach does not remove these realized variables and associated data and simplify the corresponding constraints, solving performance will slow down significantly over time. Unfortunately, simply removing realized variables can be incorrect, as they might affect unrealized de- cisions. This is why this complex task is currently performed manually in a problem-specific and time-consuming way. We propose a problem- independent framework to identify realized data and decisions, and re- move them by summarizing their effect on future iterations in a compact way. The result is a substantially improved model performance. 1 Introduction Online optimization tackles the solving of problems that evolve over time. In online optimization problems, in some areas also called dynamic or reactive, the set of input data is only partially known a priori and new data, such as new customers and/or updated travel times in a dynamic vehicle routing problem, continuously or periodically arrive while the current solution is executed.
    [Show full text]
  • Model-Based Optimization for Effective and Reliable Decision-Making
    Model-Based Optimization for Effective and Reliable Decision-Making Robert Fourer [email protected] AMPL Optimization Inc. www.ampl.com — +1 773-336-2675 DecisionCAMP Bolzano, Italy — 18 September 2019 Model-Based Optimization DecisionCAMP — 18 September 2019 1 Model-Based Optimization for Effective and Reliable Decision-Making Optimization originated as an advanced between the human modeler’s formulation mathematical technique, but it has become an and the solver software’s needs. This talk accessible and widely used decision-making introduces model-based optimization by tool. A key factor in the spread of successful contrasting it to a method-based approach optimization applications has been the that relies on customized implementation of adoption of a model-based approach: A rules and algorithms. Model-based domain expert or operations analyst focuses implementations are illustrated using the on modeling the problem of interest, while AMPL modeling language and popular the computation of a solution is left to solvers. The presentation concludes by general-purpose, off-the-shelf solvers; surveying the variety of modeling languages powerful yet intuitive modeling software and solvers available for model-based manages the difficulties of translating optimization today. Dr. Fourer has over 40 years’ experience in institutes, and corporations worldwide; he is studying, creating, and applying large-scale also author of a popular book on AMPL. optimization software. In collaboration with Additionally, he has been a key contributor to the colleagues in Computing Science Research at NEOS Server project and other efforts to make Bell Laboratories, he initiated the design and optimization services available over the Internet, development of AMPL, which has become one and has supported development of open-source of the most widely used software systems for software for operations research through his modeling and analyzing optimization problems, service on the board of the COIN-OR with users in hundreds of universities, research Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • MVE165/MMG631 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications Lecture 2 AMPL and CPLEX, Assignment 1
    AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References MVE165/MMG631 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications Lecture 2 AMPL and CPLEX, Assignment 1 Zuzana Sabartov´aˇ 2014{03{21 Lecture 2 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References Overview 1 AMPL 2 CPLEX 3 Simple problem 4 Assignment 1 5 References Lecture 2 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References AMPL Algebraic modeling language for linear and nonlinear optimization problems Formulate optimization models and examine solutions Manage communication with an appropriate solver Natural syntax Separation of model and data Discrete or continuous variables Support for sets and set operators Built in arithmetic functions Looping, if-then-else commands Lecture 2 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References Solvers that work with AMPL CPLEX - linear and quadratic problems in continuous and integer variables Gurobi - linear and quadratic problems in continuous and integer variables CONOPT - nonlinear problems MINOS - linear and nonlinear problems CONDOR, Gecode, IPOPT, MINLP, SNOPT ... Lecture 2 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References Overview 1 AMPL 2 CPLEX 3 Simple problem 4 Assignment 1 5 References Lecture 2 Linear and Integer Optimization with Applications AMPL CPLEX Simple problem Assignment 1 References CPLEX Optimization software package for solving linear
    [Show full text]
  • Software Tools Supporting Integration
    Software Tools Supporting Integration Tallys Yunes Abstract This chapter provides a brief survey of existing software tools that enable, facilitate and/or support the integration of different optimization techniques. We fo- cus on tools that have achieved a reasonable level of maturity and whose published results have demonstrated their effectiveness. The description of each tool is not in- tended to be comprehensive. We include references and links to detailed accounts of each tool for the interested reader, and we recommend that the reader consult their developers and/or vendors for the latest information about upgrades and improve- ments. Our purpose is to summarize the main features of each tool, highlighting what it can (or cannot) do, given the current version at the time of writing. We con- clude the chapter with suggestions for future research directions. 1 Introduction This chapter provides a brief survey of existing software tools that enable, facilitate and/or support the integration of different optimization techniques. By optimization techniques we mean linear programming (LP), mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), non-linear programming (NLP), constraint programming (CP), local search (LS), large neighborhood search (LNS), and their derivatives. Integration can occur in many ways and at different levels. It ranges from a simple information exchange between two solvers implementing two versions of the same mathematical model, to a full-fledged synchronization of multiple methods that interact closely during an iterative search procedure. Decomposition methods such as branch-and-price (B&P) [12] and Benders decomposition [14] also lend themselves to effective integrated approaches and are, therefore, also covered here.
    [Show full text]
  • Constraint Programming
    Constraint Programming Justin Pearson Uppsala University 1st July 2016 Special thanks to Pierre Flener, Joseph Scott and Jun He CP MiniZinc Strings Other Final Outline 1 Introduction to Constraint Programming (CP) 2 Introduction to MiniZinc 3 Constraint Programming with Strings 4 Some recent, and not so Recent Advances 5 Final Thoughts Uppsala University Justin Pearson Constraint Programming CP MiniZinc Strings Other Final Constraint Programming in a Nutshell Slogan of CP Constraint Program = Model [ + Search ] CP provides: high level declarative modelling abstractions, a framework to separate search from from modelling. Search proceeds by intelligent backtracking with intelligent inference called propagation that is guided by high-level modelling constructs called global constraints. Uppsala University Justin Pearson Constraint Programming CP MiniZinc Strings Other Final Outline 1 Introduction to Constraint Programming (CP) Modelling Propagation Systematic Search History of CP 2 Introduction to MiniZinc 3 Constraint Programming with Strings 4 Some recent, and not so Recent Advances 5 Final Thoughts Uppsala University Justin Pearson Constraint Programming CP MiniZinc Strings Other Final Constraint-Based Modelling Example (Port tasting, PT) Alva Dan Eva Jim Leo Mia Ulla 2011 2003 2000 1994 1977 1970 1966 Constraints to be satisfied: Equal jury size: Every wine is evaluated by 3 judges. Equal drinking load: Every judge evaluates 3 wines. Fairness: Every port pair has 1 judge in common. Uppsala University Justin Pearson Constraint Programming CP MiniZinc Strings Other Final Constraint-Based Modelling Example (Port tasting, PT) Alva Dan Eva Jim Leo Mia Ulla 2011 3 3 3 2003 3 3 3 2000 3 3 3 1994 3 3 3 1977 3 3 3 1970 3 3 3 1966 3 3 3 Constraints to be satisfied: Equal jury size: Every wine is evaluated by 3 judges.
    [Show full text]
  • Cesar Castillo 10140959
    DEFINICIÓN DE UNA ARQUITECTURA RESTFUL ORIENTADA AL RECURSO (RESOURCE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE - ROA) EN LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE UN WEB SERVICE QUE ALOJA ALGORITMOS SOLUCIONADORES (SOLVERS) ORIENTADOS A PROBLEMAS DE PROGRAMACIÓN LINEAL COMO SERVICIOS CESAR MANUEL CASTILLO RODRÍGUEZ UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLÓGICA DE PEREIRA FACULTAD DE INGENIERÍAS MAESTRÍA EN INGENIERÍA DE SISTEMAS Y COMPUTACIÓN PEREIRA 2017 DEFINICIÓN DE UNA ARQUITECTURA RESTFUL ORIENTADA AL RECURSO (RESOURCE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE - ROA) EN LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE UN WEB SERVICE QUE ALOJA ALGORITMOS SOLUCIONADORES (SOLVERS) ORIENTADOS A PROBLEMAS DE PROGRAMACIÓN LINEAL COMO SERVICIOS CESAR MANUEL CASTILLO RODRÍGUEZ Trabajo de grado presentado como reQuisito para optar al título de MAGISTER EN INGENIERÍA DE SISTEMAS Y COMPUTACIÓN Director JORGE IVAN RIOS PATIÑO UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLÓGICA DE PEREIRA FACULTAD DE INGENIERÍAS MAESTRÍA EN INGENIERÍA DE SISTEMAS Y COMPUTACIÓN PEREIRA 2017 NOTA DE ACEPTACIÓN _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ FIRMA JURADO Pereira, ____ de ________ de____ 3 CONTENIDOS pág 1.PRESENTACIÓN DEL PROYECTO.............................................................. 8 1.1 INTRODUCCIÓN........................................................................................ 8 1.2 PLANTEAMIENTO DEL PROBLEMA......................................................... 9 1.3 JUSTIFICACIÓN........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables
    Submitted for publication. Updated on November 13, 2013. Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables Andre Cire, John N. Hooker Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, [email protected], [email protected] Tallys Yunes School of Business Administration, University of Miami, [email protected] Recent research in the area of hybrid optimization shows that the right combination of different technologies, which exploits their complementary strengths, simplifies modeling and speeds up computation significantly. A substantial share of these computational gains comes from better communicating problem structure to solvers. Metaconstraints, which can be simple (e.g. linear) or complex (e.g. global) constraints endowed with extra behavioral parameters, allow for such richer representation of problem structure. They do, nevertheless, come with their own share of complicating issues, one of which is the identification of relationships between auxiliary variables of distinct constraint relaxations. We propose the use of additional semantic information in the declaration of decision variables as a generic solution to this issue. We present a series of examples to illustrate our ideas over a wide variety of applications. Key words : modeling; hybrid methods; metaconstraints; semantics 1. Introduction Recent research in the area of hybrid optimization shows that the right combination of different technologies can simplify modeling and speed up computation substantially, over a wide range of problem classes (surveyed in Hooker 2012). These gains come from the complementary strengths of the techniques being combined, such as mathematical pro- gramming, constraint programming, local search, and propositional satisfiability. Search, inference, and relaxation lie at the heart of these techniques, and can be adjusted to ex- ploit the structure of a given problem.
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables
    Submitted for publication. Updated on June 19, 2015. Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables Andre A. Cire Department of Management, University of Toronto Scarborough, [email protected] John N. Hooker Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, [email protected] Tallys Yunes School of Business Administration, University of Miami, [email protected] Recent research in hybrid optimization shows that a combination of technologies that exploits their complementary strengths can significantly speed up computation. The use of high-level metaconstraints in the problem formulation can achieve a substantial share of these computational gains by better communicating problem structure to the solver. During the solution process, however, metaconstraints give rise to reformulations or relaxations that introduce auxiliary variables, and some of the variables in one metaconstraint's reformulation may be functionally the same as or related to variables in another metaconstraint's reformulation. These relationships must be recognized to obtain a tight overall relaxation. We propose a modeling scheme based on semantic typing that systematically addresses this problem while providing simpler, self-documenting models. It organizes the model around predicates and declares variables by associating each with a predicate through a keyword that is analogous to a database query. We present a series of examples to illustrate this idea over a wide variety of applications. Key words : modeling; hybrid methods; metaconstraints; semantics 1. Introduction Recent research in the area of hybrid optimization shows that the right combination of different technologies can simplify modeling and speed up computation substantially, over a wide range of problem classes (surveyed in Hooker 2012).
    [Show full text]
  • Algorithms for the Restricted Linear Coloring Arrangement Problem Bachelor’S Thesis in Informatics Engineering
    Algorithms for the Restricted Linear Coloring Arrangement Problem Bachelor's Thesis in Informatics Engineering Department of Computer Science Author: Joan Llop Palao Director: Mar´ıaJos´eSerna Iglesias Defence date: Thursday 04th July 2019 Abstract The aim of this project is to develop efficient algorithms for solving or approximating the Minimum Restricted Linear Coloring Arrangement Problem. It is the first approach to its algorithms, and we will face the problem from different perspectives: constraint programming, backtracking, greedy, and genetic algorithms. As a second goal we are interested in providing theoretical results for particular graphs. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Maria Serna from the Department of Computer Science of UPC for having proposed the project and for having directed my Bachelor's Thesis. This project would not have been possible without her contribution and guidance. I would also like to thank Professor Pierre Flener from the Department of Information Technol- ogy of Uppsala University for his great lectures in the Combinatorial Optimisation and Constraint Programming course. Also, executing the algorithms for the project might have been impossible without using the Uppsala University computers. Therefore, I would like to express my deep grat- itude to Professor Pierre Flener and to the Uppsala University for having helped me. I would like to offer my special thanks to my parents and sister for their understanding. Contents 1 Project Definition7 1.1 Introduction.........................................8 1.1.1 The Problem....................................8 1.1.2 Goals of the project and scope.......................... 10 1.1.3 Interest of the problem............................... 10 1.1.4 State of the art..................................
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Constraint Programming (CP)?
    ConstraintProgramming Extensions.jl An MOI/JuMP extension for constraint programming Thibaut Cuvelier — CentraleSupélec (université Paris-Saclay) What is constraint programming (CP)? ▪ Way of formulating combinatorial problems ▪ CP doesn’t really work for continuous problems (exception: Ibex, e.g.) ▪ Initial focus in CP was on feasibility, but optimisation is also possible ▪ Quite different from mathematical optimisation: ▪ No duality, no convexity, no linear/continuous relaxation, no differentiability at all ▪ More generic set of constraints, not just equations and inequalities ▪ Real focus on discrete aspect of the problem ▪ Mathematical optimisation’s support for combinatorial problems is more an afterthought ▪ CP has had many successes in operational research: ▪ Scheduling, time tabling, resource allocation An example of CP model: solving Sudokus ▪ Variables: ▪ 푑푖푗: digit for cell 푖, 푗 , a number between 1 and 9 ▪ Constraints: ▪ Known digits (hints) ▪ Each digit appears once in each row: alldifferent 푑푖푗 ∀푗 , ∀푖 ▪ Each digit appears once in each column: alldifferent 푑푖푗 ∀푖 , ∀푗 ▪ Each digit appears once in each block: 푑3푠,3푡 푑3푠,3푡+1 푑3푠,3푡+2 alldifferent 푑3푠+1,3푡 푑3푠+1,3푡+1 푑3푠+1,3푡+2 , 푠 ∈ 0,1,2 , 푡 ∈ 0,1,2 푑3푠+1,3푡 푑3푠+1,3푡+1 푑3푠+1,3푡+2 ▪ What about your typical MIP model ? ConstraintProgrammingExtensions.jl • What is the state of CP in Julia? • What is the state of the package? • What comes next? • What is missing in Julia/MOI/JuMP? • What is enabled with this package? What is the state of CP in Julia? ▪ Quite a few CP solvers
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables
    TSpace Research Repository tspace.library.utoronto.ca Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables Andre A. Cire, John N. Hooker, Tallys Yunes Version Post-print/accepted manuscript Citation Andre A. Cire, John N. Hooker, Tallys Yunes. (2016) Modeling with (published version) Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables. INFORMS Journal on Computing 28(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2015.0664 How to cite TSpace items Always cite the published version, so the author(s) will receive recognition through services that track citation counts, e.g. Scopus. If you need to cite the page number of the author manuscript from TSpace because you cannot access the published version, then cite the TSpace version in addition to the published version using the permanent URI (handle) found on the record page. This article was made openly accessible by U of T Faculty. Please tell us how this access benefits you. Your story matters. INFORMS Journal on Computing (Pre-Print) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2015.0664 Modeling with Metaconstraints and Semantic Typing of Variables Andre A. Cire Department of Management, University of Toronto Scarborough, [email protected] John N. Hooker Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, [email protected] Tallys Yunes School of Business Administration, University of Miami, [email protected] Recent research in hybrid optimization shows that a combination of technologies that exploits their complementary strengths can significantly speed up computation. The use of high-level metaconstraints in the problem formulation can achieve a substantial share of these computational gains by better communicating problem structure to the solver.
    [Show full text]