Constraint satisfaction problems: algorithms and applications

Abstract

A constraint satisfaction problem requires a value, selected from a given finite domain, to be assigned to each variable in the problem, so that all constraints relating the variables are satisfied. Many combinatorial problems in operational research, such as scheduling and timetabling, can be formulated as constraint satisfaction problems. Researchers in artificial intelligence usually adopt a constraint satisfaction approach as their preferered method when tackling such problems. However constraint satisfaction approaches are not widely known amongst operational researchers. The aim of this paper is to introduce constraint satisfaction to the operational researchers