一种基于预处理技术的约束满足问题求解算法

相容性技术作为约束满足问题的一种有效求解技术,不论是在求解前的预处理过程中,还是在搜索过程中,都扮演着极为重要的角色.文中对预处理阶段的相容性技术进行改进和信息抽取,提出两种应用于搜索过程中的新算法Pre-AC和Pre-AC*,并嵌入到BT框架中,形成新的搜索算法BT MPAC和BT MPAC*,给出了其正确性证明,通过复杂性分析得到Pre-AC和Pre-AC*的时间复杂度分别是O(nd)和O(ed2),明显低于目前最流行的弧相容技术的时间复杂度O(ed3).实验测试结果表明:对于不同类别的用例,新算法的执行效率是弧相容维护算法的2~50倍.     

改进求解约束满足问题粗粒度弧相容算法

约束满足问题在人工智能领域有着广泛的应用.研究了约束满足问题的粗粒度维持弧相容求解算法,发现在求解过程中,对于指向已赋值变量的弧存在无效的修正检查,证明了这类修正检查是冗余的.提出一种方法避免这类冗余的修正检查,给出改进后的粗粒度弧相容算法的基本框架AC3_frame_ARR,该改进框架可用于改进所有粗粒度弧相容算法.实验结果表明,经过AC3_frame_ARR改进后的算法最多可以节省80%的修正检查次数和40%的求解耗时.     

A New Relaxation Procedure in the Hopfield Network for Solving Optimization Problems

When solving an optimization problem with a Hopfield network, a solution is obtained after the network is relaxed to an equilibrium state. The relaxation process is an important step in achieving a solution. In this paper, a new procedure for the relaxation process is proposed. In the new procedure, the amplified signal received by a neuron from other neurons is treated as the target value for its activation (output) value. The activation of a neuron is updated directly based on the difference between its current activation and the received target value, without using the updating of the input value as an intermediate step. A relaxation rate is applied to control the updating scale for a smooth relaxation process. The new procedure is evaluated and compared with the original procedure in the Hopfield network through simulations based on 200 randomly generated instances of the 10-city traveling salesman problem. The new procedure reduces the error rate by 34.6% and increases the percentage of valid tours by 194.6% as compared with the original procedure.     

约束满足问题的预处理方法研究

搜索控制问题是大多数人工智能问题求解面临的一个根本间题,而约束满足是解决这一问题的常用方法之一它源于机器视觉领域中的情景标识任务,如今在人工智能的众多领域(如规划、调度、时序推理)中获得了广泛的应用,受到了人工智能界的高度重视.在近几期的UCAI和AAAI等国际人工智能会议上这方面的内容均占有一定的比重,《A币ficial In-telligence》杂志曾于1992年出了一期约束满足问题的专辑     

基于关联约束非二元弧一致性的约束满足问题求解

弧一致性算法在二元约束满足问题中取得了成功的应用,但并不能被有效泛化至预处理非二元约束满足问题(NCSP).本文提出了处理NCSP的关联约束非二元弧一致性算法.通过随机NCSP生成器产生问题实例,分别采用关联约束非二元弧一致性算法和非二元弧一致性算法进行预处理,并对预处理后的问题实例应用回溯算法进行求解.对比分析采用两种预处理算法和不采用预处理下回溯算法的求解性能,仿真实验结果表明关联约束非二元弧一致性算法可以有效地剔除冗余的约束元组和变量域值,使关联约束非二元弧一致性回溯算法具有更良好的鲁棒性.     

求解约束可满足问题的eSTR算法优化

表约束方法是1种外延式知识表示方法,每个约束通过元组集直接枚举出其在1个变量集上允许或禁止的所有元组,直观易于理解,在约束程序中得到了深入的研究,这是因为表约束出现在如设计、数据库、配置以及偏好建模等许多现实世界的应用中.但随着约束的增多及其元组集增大,占有的空间与相容性检测效率成了关键问题.eSTR是1个将STR扩展到高阶相容的算法,通过深入分析eSTR算法后发现有2种优化方式:PW\\+{sup}数据结构和极小约束范围,同时证明了在极小约束范围上,约束网络仍然能够维持PWC+GAC,其中极小约束范围可以通过删除约束元组集中相应的列来降低eSTR2算法的空间消耗,而PW\\+{sup}数据结构能够通过避免不必要的PW支持检测来减少eSTR2的CPU运行时间,实验结果表明：2种优化方式和eSTR2相结合后能够同时减少算法的空间消耗和CPU运行时间,在许多类实例上明显优于eSTR2和eSTR2w.     

A Glimpse of Constraint Satisfaction

Constraint satisfaction has become an important field in computer science. This technology is embedded in millions of pounds of software used by major companies. Many researchers or software engineers in the industry could have benefited from using constraint technology without realizing it. The aim of this paper is to promote constraint technology by providing readers with a fairly quick introduction to this field. The approach here is to use the well known 8-queens problem to illustrate the basic techniques in constraint satisfaction (without going into great details), and leave interested readers with pointers to further study this field.     

A New Approach for Weighted Constraint Satisfaction

We consider the Weighted Constraint Satisfaction Problem which is an important problem in Artificial Intelligence. Given a set of variables, their domains and a set of constraints between variables, our goal is to obtain an assignment of the variables to domain values such that the weighted sum of satisfied constraints is maximized. In this paper, we present a new approach based on randomized rounding of semidefinite programming relaxation. Besides having provable worst-case bounds for domain sizes 2 and 3, our algorithm is simple and efficient in practice, and produces better solutions than some other polynomial-time algorithms such as greedy and randomized local search.     

Solving Mixed and Conditional Constraint Satisfaction Problems

Constraints are a powerful general paradigm for representing knowledge in intelligent systems. The standard constraint satisfaction paradigm involves variables over a discrete value domain and constraints which restrict the solutions to allowed value combinations. This standard paradigm is inapplicable to problems which are either:(a) mixed, involving both numeric and discrete variables, or(b) conditional,¹ containing variables whose existence depends on the values chosen for other variables, or(c) both, conditional and mixed.We present a general formalism which handles both exceptions in an integral search framework. We solve conditional problems by analyzing dependencies between constraints that enable us to directly compute all possible configurations of the CSP rather than discovering them during search. For mixed problems, we present an enumeration scheme that integrates numeric variables with discrete ones in a single search process. Both techniques take advantage of enhanced propagation rule for numeric variables that results in tighter labelings than the algorithms commonly used. From real world examples in configuration and design, we identify several types of mixed constraints, i.e. constraints defined over numeric and discrete variables, and propose new propagation rules in order to take advantage of these constraints during problem solving.     

基于学习-推理的约束求解方法研究进展

机器学习与自动推理的融合是当前人工智能研究的新趋势.约束满足问题是人工智能研究的经典问题,现实世界中大量的调度、规划和配置等问题均可以建模为约束满足问题,高效的求解算法一直是研究热点.近年来涌现出众多将机器学习应用于约束满足问题求解的新方法,这些基于“学习-推理”的新方法为约束满足问题求解开辟了新方向并展示出巨大发展潜力,方法的突出优点是适应性强、可在线优化并具有更强的可扩展性.将当前的“学习-推理”方法分为基于消息传递神经网络、基于序列到序列和基于最优化等3类进行综述,详细分析各类方法的特点和在不同的问题集上求解效果,尤其对每类方法所涵盖的相关工作进行多角度的对比分析.最后,对基于“学习-推理”的约束求解方法进行总结和展望.     

A Context for Constraint Satisfaction Problem Formulation Selection

Much research effort has been applied to finding effective ways for solving constraint satisfaction problems. However, the most fundamental aspect of constraint satisfaction problem solving, problem formulation, has received much less attention. This is important because the selection of an appropriate formulation can have dramatic effects on the efficiency of any constraint satisfaction problem solving algorithm.In this paper, we address the issue of problem formulation. We identify the heuristic nature of generating a good formulation and we propose a context for this process. Our work presents the research community with a focus for the many elements which affect problem formulation and this is illustrated with the example adding redundant constraints. It also provides a significant step towards the goal of automatic selection of problem formulations.     

非二元约束满足问题求解

在约束满足问题(CSP)的研究中，大部分工作集中在二元约束，但处理实际问题时，常常会遇到非二元约束的情况．该文在概要地讨论了两类求解非二元约束问题方法的基础上，研究了一种将约束传播技术和一般弧相容回溯算法相结合的非二元约束求解方法，并在设计开发的约束求解工具“明月SOLVER1.0”中实现了该方法，以典型例子给出了实现系统的运行结果．     

A Constraint Satisfaction Neural Network and Heuristic Combined Approach for Concurrent Activities Scheduling

Scheduling activities in concurrent product development process is of great significance to shorten development lead time and minimize the cost. Moreover, it can eliminate the unnecessary redesign periods and guarantee that serial activities can be executed as concurrently as possible. This paper presents a constraint satisfaction neural network and heuristic combined approach for concurrent activities scheduling. In the combined approach, the neural network is used to obtain a feasible starting time of all the activities based on sequence constraints, the heuristic algorithm is used to obtain a feasible solution of the scheduling problem based on resource constraints. The feasible scheduling solution is obtained by a gradient optimization function. Simulations have shown that the proposed combined approach is efficient and feasible with respect to concurrent activities scheduling.     

一种量词约束满足问题的混合易解子类

量词约束满足问题是人工智能和自动推理领域的一个重要问题.寻找多项式时间易解子类,是研究此类问题计算复杂性的关键.通过分析二元量词约束满足问题中的约束关系特征,以及量词前缀中的全称量词排列的顺序,提出了针对全称量词变量子结构的易解性质的分析方法.通过该方法,扩展了已知的基于Broken-Triangle Property的多项式时间易解子类,提出了一个更一般化的量词约束满足问题的混合易解子类.讨论了易解子类在问题结构分析中的一个应用,即通过易解子类确定量词约束满足问题的隐蔽变量集合,并通过实验分析不同易解子类所确定的集合大小.实验改造了基于回溯算法的求解器,在回溯过程中加入了易解子类的识别算法,并采用随机约束满足问题的生成模型作为测试基准.通过对比实验,验证了提出的多项式时间易解子类可以识别出更小的隐蔽变量集合,因此,新提出的易解子类在确定隐蔽变量集合方面更具优势.最后阐述了其他已有的混合易解子类也可以通过类似方法进行扩展,从而得到更多的一般化的理论结果.     

基于非二元约束满足的配置问题求解方法

依据产品的可配置性,提出基于非二元约束的逻辑产品模型,给出基于动态变量序的一类配置求解算法。采用仿真实验比较各种算法的求解效率,指出各算法在不同配置约束密度下快速求解配置问题时的适用范围。基于逻辑产品模型,依据配置问题实际性质,采用相应配置求解算法,能够更快地生成符合客户要求的产品配置方案。     

机床产品分布式协同约束模型研究

研究了机床产品协同开发中约束的种类和特点以及约束模型的建立方法,描述了约束网络的一致性、有效性、完备性和全面性等特性,并列举了一个具体的约束网络实例。建立了协同产品开发中的动态约束模型,将约束分为耦合约束和独立约束两种类型,通过设定耦合约束的变量的取值范围,将耦合约束转换为独立约束,并综合利用约束传播算法和区间求解算法对该约束模型进行求解。最后给出了协同产品开发中约束模型的网络实现流程并开发了相应的原型系统,为冲突的检测方法提供了量化手段,可以提前发现潜在的冲突。     

Solution Techniques for Constraint Satisfaction Problems: Advanced Approaches

Conventional techniques for the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP)have had considerable success in their applications. However,there are many areas in which the performance of the basic approachesmay be improved. These include heuristic ordering of certain tasksperformed by the CSP solver, hybrids which combine compatible solutiontechniques and graph based methods which exploit the structure of theconstraint graph representation of a CSP. Also, conventionalconstraint satisfaction techniques only address problems with hardconstraints (i.e. each of which are completely satisfied or completelyviolated, and all of which must be satisfied by a validsolution). Many real applications require a more flexible approachwhich relaxes somewhat these rigid requirements. To address theseissues various approaches have been developed. This paper attempts asystematic review of them.     

装配序列规划问题的CSP模型及其符号OBDD求解技术

完全、正确的可行装配序列的表示和生成是装配序列评价、优化和选择的前提,为此建立了单调非线性装配意义下的可行装配序列规划问题的约束满足问题(CSP)模型,并给出了基于有序二叉决策图(OBDD)的符号求解算法.首先以装配联接图和移动向量函数为装配体模型,给出了装配联接图模型的共享二叉决策图(SBDD)表示、移动向量函数的OBDD表示,以及装配序列规划问题的CSP描述;然后将生成所有可行装配序列的问题转化为对CSP求解所有可能解的问题,利用回溯算法对CSP问题进行符号OBDD求解,得到了满足几何可行性约束的所有可行装配序列.最后通过装配体实验验证了基于CSP模型和OBDD推理的装配序列生成技术的正确性和可行性.     

When Ants Attack: Ant Algorithms for Constraint Satisfaction Problems

We describe an ant algorithm for solving constraint problems (Solnon 2002, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 6(4): 347–357). We devise a number of variants and carry out experiments. Our preliminary results suggest that the best way to deposit pheromone and the best heuristics for state transitions may differ from current practice     

约束满足自适应神经网络求解车间调度问题

提出一种基于约求满足的自适应神经网络方法求解车间作业调度问题。在该算法中,神经网络在运行过程中能够根据问题的约束类型、约束满足情况、启发式规则的选择来自适应调节神经元之间的连接权值,从而求得问题的可行解。仿真实验证明了算法的有效性。