A non-binary constraint ordering heuristic for constraint satisfaction problems

摘要

Nowadays many real problems can be modelled as constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). A search algorithm for constraint programming requires an order in which variables and values should to be considered. Choosing the right order of variables and values can noticeably improve the efficiency of constraint satisfaction. Furthermore, the order in which constraints are studied can improve efficiency, particularly in problems with non-binary constraints. In this paper, we present a preprocess heuristic called constraint ordering heuristic (COH) that studies the constrainedness of the scheduling problem and mainly classifies the constraints so that the tightest ones are studied first. Thus, constrainedness can be known in advance and overall inconsistencies can be found earlier and the number of constraint checks can significantly be reduced. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.