Chapter 1 GLOBAL CONSTRAINTS AND FILTERING ALGORITHMS Jean-Charles R´egin ILOG 1681, route des Dolines, Sophia Antipolis, 06560 Valbonne, France
[email protected] Abstract Constraint programming (CP) is mainly based on filtering algorithms; their association with global constraints is one of the main strengths of CP. This chapter is an overview of these two techniques. Some of the most frequently used global constraints are presented. In addition, the filtering algorithms establishing arc consistency for two useful con- straints, the alldiff and the global cardinality constraints, are fully de- tailed. Filtering algorithms are also considered from a theoretical point of view: three different ways to design filtering algorithms are described and the quality of the filtering algorithms studied so far is discussed. A categorization is then proposed. Over-constrained problems are also mentioned and global soft constraints are introduced. Keywords: Global constraint, filtering algorithm, arc consistency, alldiff, global car- dinality constraint, over-constrained problems, global soft constraint, graph theory, matching. 1. Introduction A constraint network (CN) consists of a set of variables; domains of possible values associated with each of these variables; and a set of con- straints that link up the variables and define the set of combinations of values that are allowed. The search for an instantiation of all vari- ables that satisfies all the constraints is called a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP), and such an instantiation is called a solution of a CSP. A lot of problems can be easily coded in terms of CSP. For instance, CSP has already been used to solve problems of scene analysis, place- 1 2 ment, resource allocation, crew scheduling, time tabling, scheduling, fre- quency allocation, car sequencing, and so on.