Constraint modelling

Abstract

Constraint programming is one of the possible ways how to solve complicated combinatorial (and other) problems. We model a problem using variables representing real world objects and constraints representing various relations between the objects. However, there are often many possible ways how to model a problem. And what's more, the choice of a modeling strategy can a®ect the resulting efficiency dramatically. Unfortunately, there is no general recipe how to model problems e±ciently. Nevertheless there are still several modeling techniques, heuristics or advices that could improve the e±ciency of models. Some of these techniques are problem dependent, some can be applied only to a certain classes of problems but they still often help. This thesis is trying to give more or less complete list of the most important modeling techniques along with an explanation of why, how and for which classes of problems they work best and also with empirical results underlying the presented facts.