Domain-dependent distributed models for railway scheduling

Many combinatorial problems can be modelled as Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). Solving a general CSP is known to be NP-complete, so closure and heuristic search are usually used. However, many problems are inherently distributed and the problem complexity can be reduced by dividing the problem into a set of subproblems. Nevertheless, general distributed techniques are not always appropriate to distribute real-life problems. In this work, we model the railway scheduling problem by means of domain-dependent distributed constraint models, and we show that these models maintained better behaviors than general distributed models based on graph partitioning. The evaluation is focused on the railway scheduling problem, where domain-dependent models carry out a problem distribution by means of trains and contiguous sets of stations.     

Automatic Generation of Redundant Models for Permutation Constraint Satisfaction Problems

If we have two representations of a problem as constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) models, it has been shown that combining the models using channeling constraints can increase constraint propagation in tree search CSP solvers. Handcrafting two CSP models for a problem, however, is often time-consuming. In this paper, we propose model induction, a process which generates a second CSP model from an existing model using channeling constraints, and study its theoretical properties. The generated induced model is in a different viewpoint, i.e., set of variables. It is mutually redundant to and can be combined with the input model, so that the combined model contains more redundant information, which is useful to increase constraint propagation. We also propose two methods of combining CSP models, namely model intersection and model channeling. The two methods allow combining two mutually redundant models in the same and different viewpoints respectively. We exploit the applications of model induction, intersection, and channeling and identify three new classes of combined models, which contain different amounts of redundant information. We construct combined models of permutation CSPs and show in extensive benchmark results that the combined models are more robust and efficient to solve than the single models.     

Static scheduling techniques for dependent tasks on dynamically reconfigurable devices

Dynamically reconfigurable hardware not only has high silicon reusability, but it can also deliver high performance for computation-intensive tasks. Advanced features such as run-time reconfiguration allow multiple tasks to be mapped onto the same device either simultaneously or multiplexed in time domain. These tasks need to be scheduled optimally or near optimally in order to efficiently utilize the device. It is a NP-hard problem, because task scheduling, allocation and configuration prefetching all need to be considered. In this paper, we target dependent task models and propose three static schedulers that use different problem solving strategies. The first is a heuristic approach developed from traditional list-based schedulers. It presents high efficiency but the least accuracy. The second is based on a full-domain search using constraint programming. It can guarantee to produce optimal solutions but requires significant searching effort. The last is a guided random search technique based on a genetic algorithm, which shows reasonable efficiency and much better accuracy than the heuristic approach.     

Searching graphs with A*: applications to job sequencing

The best-first search algorithm A* allows search graphs that are trees, directed acyclic graphs or directed graphs with cycles. In real life applications of A* the search graph is generally implemented as a tree. It is shown here that for certain well known one-machine job sequencing problems that arise in job shops, graph search is much faster than best-first tree search when problem instances are of small and medium size. Moreover, graph search uses less memory and so is able to solve larger problems. Depth-first search needs little memory, and is therefore capable in principle of solving problems of arbitrary size, but is slower than graph search by orders of magnitude for the examples that were studied     

Multihierarchical graph search

The use of hierarchical graph searching for finding paths in graphs is well known in the literature, providing better results than plain graph searching, with respect to computational costs, in many cases. This paper offers a step forward by including multiple hierarchies in a graph-based model. Such a multi-hierarchical model has the following advantages: First, a multiple hierarchy permits us to choose the best hierarchy to solve each search problem; second, when several search problems have to be solved, a multiple hierarchy provides the possibility of solving some of them simultaneously; and third, solutions to the search problems can be expressed in any of the hierarchies of the multiple hierarchy, which allows us to represent the information in the most suitable way for each specific purpose. In general, multiple hierarchies have proven to be a more adaptable model than single-hierarchy or non-hierarchical models. This paper formalizes the multi-hierarchical model, describes the techniques that have been designed for taking advantage of multiple hierarchies in a hierarchical path search, and presents some experiments and results on the performance of these techniques     

扩展知识图谱上的实体关系检索

现有文本数据集上的实体搜索和自然语言查询方法无法处理需要将分散在不同文档中的信息碎片链接起来以满足有复杂实体关系的查询,而知识库上的查询虽然可以表示实体间的复杂关系,但由于知识库的异构性和不完全性,通常查全率较低。针对这些问题,提出使用文本数据集对知识库进行扩展,并设计相应的含文本短语的三元组模式查询以支持对知识库和文本数据的统一查询。在此基础上,设计并实现了查询放松机制和对结果元组的评分模型,并给出了高效的查询处理方法。使用YAGO、ClueWeb09和其上的FACC1数据集,在三个不同的查询测试集(实体检索、实体关系检索和复杂的实体关系查询)上与两个典型相关工作作了比较。实验结果显示,扩展知识图谱上使用查询放松规则的实体关系检索系统的检索效果大大超出了其他系统,具体地在三个查询测试集上,其平均正确率均值(MAP)比其他系统分别提升了27%、37%和64%以上。     

Removing Node Overlapping in Graph Layout Using Constrained Optimization

Although graph drawing has been extensively studied, little attention has been paid to the problem of node overlapping. The problem arises because almost all existing graph layout algorithms assume that nodes are points. In practice, however, nodes may be labelled, and these labels may overlap. Here we investigate how such node overlapping can be removed in a subsequent layout adjustment phase. We propose four different approaches for removing node overlapping, all of which are based on constrained optimization techniques. The first is the simplest. It performs the minimal linear scaling which will remove node-overlapping. The second approach relies on formulating the node overlapping problem as a convex quadratic programming problem, which can then be solved by any quadratic solver. The disadvantage is that, since constraints must be linear, the node overlapping constraints cannot be expressed directly, but must be strengthened to obtain a linear constraint strong enough to ensure no node overlapping. The third and fourth approaches are based on local search methods. The third is an adaptation of the EGENET solver originally designed for solving general constraint satisfaction problems, while the fourth approach is a form of Lagrangian multiplier method, a well-known optimization technique used in operations research. Both the third and fourth method are able to handle the node overlapping constraints directly, and thus may potentially find better solutions. Their disadvantage is that no efficient global optimization methods are available for such problems, and hence we must accept a local minimum. We illustrate all of the above methods on a series of layout adjustment problems.     

Complete Boolean Satisfiability Solving Algorithms Based on Local Search

Boolean satisfiability (SAT) is a well-known problem in computer science, artificial intelligence, and operations research. This paper focuses on the satisfiability problem of Model RB structure that is similar to graph coloring problems and others. We propose a translation method and three effective complete SAT solving algorithms based on the characterization of Model RB structure. We translate clauses into a graph with exclusive sets and relative sets. In order to reduce search depth, we determine search order using vertex weights and clique in the graph. The results show that our algorithms are much more effective than the best SAT solvers in numerous Model RB benchmarks, especially in those large benchmark instances.     

Stochastic Local Search Algorithms for Graph Set <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>-colouring and Frequency Assignment

The graph set T-colouring problem (GSTCP) generalises the classical graph colouring problem; it asks for the assignment of sets of integers to the vertices of a graph such that constraints on the separation of any two numbers assigned to a single vertex or to adjacent vertices are satisfied and some objective function is optimised. Among the objective functions of interest is the minimisation of the difference between the largest and the smallest integers used (the span). In this article, we present an experimental study of local search algorithms for solving general and large size instances of the GSTCP. We compare the performance of previously known as well as new algorithms covering both simple construction heuristics and elaborated stochastic local search algorithms. We investigate systematically different models and search strategies in the algorithms and determine the best choices for different types of instance. The study is an example of design of effective local search for constraint optimisation problems.     

The salesman and the tree: the importance of search in CP

The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a challenging optimization problem for CP and OR that has many industrial applications. Its generalization to the degree constrained minimum spanning tree problem (DCMSTP) is being intensively studied by the OR community. In particular, classical solution techniques for the TSP are being progressively generalized to the DCMSTP. Recent work on cost-based relaxations has improved CP models for the TSP. However, CP search strategies have not yet been widely investigated for these problems. The contributions of this paper are twofold. We first introduce a natural generalization of the weighted cycle constraint (WCC) to the DCMSTP. We then provide an extensive empirical evaluation of various search strategies. In particular, we show that significant improvement can be achieved via our graph interpretation of the state-of-the-art Last Conflict heuristic.     

面向方面级情感分析的加权依存树卷积网络

面向方面级情感分析,现有基于规则的依存树修剪方法存在删除部分有用信息的问题。另外,如何利用图卷积网络获取图结构中丰富的全局信息也是现阶段面临的一个重要问题。针对第一个问题,该文通过多头注意力机制自动学习如何有选择地关注对分类任务有用的结构信息,将原始依存树转变为完全连接的边加权图。针对第二个问题,该文将紧密连接引入图卷积网络中,使图卷积网络能够捕捉丰富的局部和全局信息。三个公开数据集上的实验结果表明,该文模型相比基线模型其准确率和F₁值均有提升。     

Solving production scheduling with earliness/tardiness penalties by constraint programming

This paper deals with an application of constraint programming in production scheduling with earliness and tardiness penalties that reflects the scheduling part of the Just-In-Time inventory strategy. Two scheduling problems are studied, an industrial case study problem of lacquer production scheduling, and also the job-shop scheduling problem with earliness/tardiness costs. The paper presents two algorithms that help the constraint programming solver to find solutions of these complex problems. The first algorithm, called the cost directed initialization, performs a greedy initialization of the search tree. The second one, called the time reversing transformation and designed for lacquer production scheduling, reformulates the problem to be more easily searchable when the default search or the cost directed initialization is used. The conducted experiments, using case study instances and randomly generated problem instances, show that our algorithms outperform generic approaches, and on average give better results than other nontrivial algorithms.     

Hybrid heuristic search approach for deadlock-free scheduling of flexible manufacturing systems using Petri nets

Based on the Petri net models of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), this paper focuses on deadlock-free scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the makespan. Two hybrid heuristic search algorithms for solving such scheduling problems of FMSs are proposed. To avoid deadlocks, the deadlock control policy is embedded into heuristic search strategies. The proposed algorithms combine the heuristic best-first strategy with the controlled backtracking strategy based on the execution of the Petri nets. The scheduling problem is transformed into a heuristic search problem in the reachability graph of the Petri net, and a schedule is a transition sequence from the initial marking to the final marking in the reachability graph. By using the one-step look-ahead method in the deadlock control policy, the safety of a state in the reachability graph is checked, and hence, deadlock is avoided. Experimental results are provided and indicate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid heuristic search algorithms in solving deadlock-free scheduling problems of FMSs. Especially, the comparison against previous work shows that both new algorithms are promising in terms of solution quality and computing times.     

A computational study on the quadratic knapsack problem with multiple constraints

The quadratic knapsack problem (QKP) has been the subject of considerable research in recent years. Despite notable advances in special purpose solution methodologies for QKP, this problem class remains very difficult to solve. With the exception of special cases, the state-of-the-art is limited to addressing problems of a few hundred variables and a single knapsack constraint.In this paper we provide a comparison of quadratic and linear representations of QKP based on test problems with multiple knapsack constraints and up to eight hundred variables. For the linear representations, three standard linearizations are investigated. Both the quadratic and linear models are solved by standard branch-and-cut optimizers available via CPLEX. Our results show that the linear models perform well on small problem instances but for larger problems the quadratic model outperforms the linear models tested both in terms of solution quality and solution time by a wide margin. Moreover, our results demonstrate that QKP instances larger than those previously addressed in the literature as well as instances with multiple constraints can be successfully and efficiently solved by branch and cut methodologies.     

Genetic algorithm for the personnel assignment problem with multiple objectives

The assignment problem is a well-known graph optimization problem defined on weighted-bipartite graphs. The objective of the standard assignment problem is to maximize the summation of the weights of the matched edges of the bipartite graph. In the standard assignment problem, any node in one partition can be matched with any node in the other partition without any restriction. In this paper, variations of the standard assignment problem are defined with matching constraints by introducing structures in the partitions of the bipartite graph, and by defining constraints on these structures. According to the first constraint, the matching between the two partitions should respect the hierarchical-ordering constraints defined by forest and level graph structures produced by using the nodes of the two partitions respectively. In order to define the second constraint, the nodes of the partitions of the bipartite graph are distributed into mutually exclusive sets. The set-restriction constraint enforces the rule that in one of the partitions all the elements of each set should be matched with the elements of a set in the other partition. Even with one of these constraints the assignment problem becomes an NP-hard problem. Therefore, the extended assignment problem with both the hierarchical-ordering and set-restriction constraints becomes an NP-hard multi-objective optimization problem with three conflicting objectives; namely, minimizing the numbers of hierarchical-ordering and set-restriction violations, and maximizing the summation of the weights of the edges of the matching. Genetic algorithms are proven to be very successful for NP-hard multi-objective optimization problems. In this paper, we also propose genetic algorithm solutions for different versions of the assignment problem with multiple objectives based on hierarchical and set constraints, and we empirically show the performance of these solutions.     

Many hard examples in exact phase transitions

This paper analyzes the resolution complexity of two random constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) models (i.e. Model RB/RD) for which we can establish the existence of phase transitions and identify the threshold points exactly. By encoding CSPs into CNF formulas, it is proved that almost all instances of Model RB/RD have no tree-like resolution proofs of less than exponential size. Thus, we not only introduce new families of CSPs and CNF formulas hard to solve, which can be useful in the experimental evaluation of CSP and SAT algorithms, but also propose models with both many hard instances and exact phase transitions. Finally, conclusions are presented, as well as a detailed comparison of Model RB/RD with the Hamiltonian cycle problem and random 3-SAT, which, respectively, exhibit three different kinds of phase transition behavior in NP-complete problems.     

Research on engineering-oriented constraints conflict detection in collaborative design of wire harness technology

Engineering-oriented constraint of harness technology has much information and project information presents progressive changes along with the design.Therefore,how to handle conflict resolution quickly is a problem to be solved.Process model of conflict detection is put forward according to characteristics of harness technology design engineering-oriented constraint,and then two problems of how to conduct conflict positioning and judgment of constraint rules are introduced in this paper.Afterwards in this paper,constraint information directed acyclic graph is established by classified project constraint information to solve the conflict positioning problem;solution of constraint satisfaction problem is applied to realize judgment problem of constraint rules.Finally,example is used to analyze the method in this paper to further verify the correctness and effectiveness of this method.     

面向知识图谱约束问答的强化学习推理技术

知识图谱问答任务通过问题分析与知识图谱推理,将问题的精准答案返回给用户,现已被广泛应用于智能搜索、个性化推荐等智慧信息服务中.考虑到关系监督学习方法人工标注的高昂代价,学者们开始采用强化学习等弱监督学习方法设计知识图谱问答模型.然而,面对带有约束的复杂问题,现有方法面临两大挑战:(1)多跳长路径推理导致奖励稀疏与延迟;(2)难以处理约束问题推理路径分支.针对上述挑战,设计了融合约束信息的奖励函数,能够解决弱监督学习面临的奖励稀疏与延迟问题;设计了基于强化学习的约束路径推理模型COPAR,提出了基于注意力机制的动作选择策略与基于约束的实体选择策略,能够依据问题约束信息选择关系及实体,缩减推理搜索空间,解决了推理路径分支问题.此外,提出了歧义约束处理策略,有效解决了推理路径歧义问题.采用知识图谱问答基准数据集对COPAR的性能进行了验证和对比.实验结果表明:与现有先进方法相比,在多跳数据集上性能相对提升了2%-7%,在约束数据集上性能均优于对比模型,准确率提升7.8%以上.     

求解布局模型的并行矩阵算法研究

布局设计通常要建立抽象状态空间模型。求解布局模型，实现从模型状态到坐标图的转化，是计算机辅助布局设计的重要研究内容之一。本文在简要介绍一种层次布局模型ＨＬＭ１的基础上，引入了模型的解的概念；研究了ＨＬＭ１的子模型－层次约束图解的存在条件；提出了求解层次约束图，实现从模型到坐标图转化以及检测约束矛盾的一种并行矩阵算法，并给出了一个计算实例。     

Constraint theory: an overview

The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytic foundation—called Constraint Theory—for the systematic determination of mathematical model consistency and computational allowability. Constraint Theory's primary application is the more efficient construction and use of heterogeneous, multidimensional mathematical models, especially when interdisciplinary technical teams, system analysts, and managers are involved.

A rigorous basis for the formerly ill-defined notion of ‘ constraint ’ is established and four interrelated viewpoints of a mathematical model are defined : (a) the set-theoretic relation space, (b) the submodel family, (c) the bipartite graph, and (d) the constraint matrix. The first two viewpoints represent complete models ; the second two represent metamodels.

Many correspondences are proved between the topological properties of a model's graph and its constraint properties, Variables located in different connected components of a graph are always mutually consistent, but computations performed on them are never allowable. If a model graph of universal relations has a tree structure, all its variables are mutually consistent. If a model graph of regular relations has a tree structure, all its variables are consistent and, moreover, none can be point constrained. The circuit-cluster portions of the model graph are the only possible locations for point constraint and overconstraint to occur in a set of regular relations. In these cases, point constraint can always be identified by a ‘ basic nodal square ’. Topological concepts such as circuit rank, circuit index, and constraint potential are applied to extract the basic nodel squares from a large, complex circuit-cluster portion of a model graph.

Several examples applying the principles of constraint theory are provided.