159 research outputs found
Translation-based Constraint Answer Set Solving
We solve constraint satisfaction problems through translation to answer set
programming (ASP). Our reformulations have the property that unit-propagation
in the ASP solver achieves well defined local consistency properties like arc,
bound and range consistency. Experiments demonstrate the computational value of
this approach.Comment: Self-archived version for IJCAI'11 Best Paper Track submissio
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Transformation of propositional calculus statements into integer and mixed integer programs: An approach towards automatic reformulation
A systematic procedure for transforming a set of logical statements or logical conditions imposed on a model into an Integer Linear Progamming (ILP) formulation Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) formulation is presented. An ILP stated as a system of linear constraints involving integer variables and an objective function, provides a powerful representation of decision problems through a tightly interrelated closed system of choices. It supports direct representation of logical (Boolean or prepositional calculus) expressions. Binary variables (hereafter called logical variables) are first introduced and methods of logically connecting these to other variables are then presented. Simple constraints can be combined to construct logical relationships and the methods of formulating these are discussed. A reformulation procedure which uses the extended reverse polish representation of a compound logical form is then described. These reformulation procedures are illustrated by two examples. A scheme of implementation.ithin an LP modelling system is outlined
Improving the Computational Efficiency in Symmetrical Numeric Constraint Satisfaction Problems
Models are used in science and engineering for experimentation,
analysis, diagnosis or design. In some cases, they can be considered
as numeric constraint satisfaction problems (NCSP). Many models
are symmetrical NCSP. The consideration of symmetries ensures that
NCSP-solver will find solutions if they exist on a smaller search space.
Our work proposes a strategy to perform it. We transform the symmetrical
NCSP into a newNCSP by means of addition of symmetry-breaking
constraints before the search begins. The specification of a library of possible
symmetries for numeric constraints allows an easy choice of these
new constraints. The summarized results of the studied cases show the
suitability of the symmetry-breaking constraints to improve the solving
process of certain types of symmetrical NCSP. Their possible speedup
facilitates the application of modelling and solving larger and more
realistic problems.Ministerio de Ciencia y TecnologÃa DIP2003-0666-02-
PSPACE Bounds for Rank-1 Modal Logics
For lack of general algorithmic methods that apply to wide classes of logics,
establishing a complexity bound for a given modal logic is often a laborious
task. The present work is a step towards a general theory of the complexity of
modal logics. Our main result is that all rank-1 logics enjoy a shallow model
property and thus are, under mild assumptions on the format of their
axiomatisation, in PSPACE. This leads to a unified derivation of tight
PSPACE-bounds for a number of logics including K, KD, coalition logic, graded
modal logic, majority logic, and probabilistic modal logic. Our generic
algorithm moreover finds tableau proofs that witness pleasant proof-theoretic
properties including a weak subformula property. This generality is made
possible by a coalgebraic semantics, which conveniently abstracts from the
details of a given model class and thus allows covering a broad range of logics
in a uniform way
Branching strategies for mixed-integer programs containing logical constraints and decomposable structure
Decision-making optimisation problems can include discrete selections, e.g. selecting a route, arranging non-overlapping items or designing a network of items. Branch-and-bound (B&B), a widely applied divide-and-conquer framework, often solves such problems by considering a continuous approximation, e.g. replacing discrete variable domains by a continuous superset. Such approximations weaken the logical relations, e.g. for discrete variables corresponding to Boolean variables. Branching in B&B reintroduces logical relations by dividing the search space. This thesis studies designing B&B branching strategies, i.e. how to divide the search space, for optimisation problems that contain both a logical and a continuous structure.
We begin our study with a large-scale, industrially-relevant optimisation problem where the objective consists of machine-learnt gradient-boosted trees (GBTs) and convex penalty functions. GBT functions contain if-then queries which introduces a logical structure to this problem. We propose decomposition-based rigorous bounding strategies and an iterative heuristic that can be embedded into a B&B algorithm. We approach branching with two strategies: a pseudocost initialisation and strong branching that target the structure of GBT and convex penalty aspects of the optimisation objective, respectively. Computational tests show that our B&B approach outperforms state-of-the-art solvers in deriving rigorous bounds on optimality.
Our second project investigates how satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) derived unsatisfiable cores may be utilised in a B&B context. Unsatisfiable cores are subsets of constraints that explain an infeasible result. We study two-dimensional bin packing (2BP) and develop a B&B algorithm that branches on SMT unsatisfiable cores. We use the unsatisfiable cores to derive cuts that break 2BP symmetries. Computational results show that our B&B algorithm solves 20% more instances when compared with commercial solvers on the tested instances.
Finally, we study convex generalized disjunctive programming (GDP), a framework that supports logical variables and operators. Convex GDP includes disjunctions of mathematical constraints, which motivate branching by partitioning the disjunctions. We investigate separation by branching, i.e. eliminating solutions that prevent rigorous bound improvement, and propose a greedy algorithm for building the branches. We propose three scoring methods for selecting the next branching disjunction. We also analyse how to leverage infeasibility to expedite the B&B search. Computational results show that our scoring methods can reduce the number of explored B&B nodes by an order of magnitude when compared with scoring methods proposed in literature. Our infeasibility analysis further reduces the number of explored nodes.Open Acces
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