Optimisation modelling for software developers

Kathryn Francis, Sebastian Brand, Peter J. Stuckey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference PaperResearchpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Software developers are an ideal channel for the distribution of Constraint Programming (CP) technology. Unfortunately, including even basic optimisation functionality in an application currently requires the use of an entirely separate paradigm with which most software developers are not familiar. We suggest an alternative interface to CP designed to overcome this barrier, and describe a prototype implementation for Java. The interface allows an optimisation problem to be defined in terms of procedures rather than decision variables and constraints. Optimisation is seamlessly integrated into a wider application through automatic conversion between this definition and a conventional model solved by an external solver. This work is inspired by the language CoJava, in which a simulation is automatically translated into an optimal simulation. We extend this idea to support a general interface where optimisation is triggered on-demand. Our implementation also supports much more advanced code, such as object variables, variable-sized collections, and complex decisions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPrinciples and Practice of Constraint Programming - 18th International Conference, CP 2012, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer
Pages274-289
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783642335570
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2012
Externally publishedYes
EventInternational Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming 2012 - Quebec, Canada
Duration: 8 Oct 201212 Oct 2012
Conference number: 18th
http://archive.a4cp.org/cp2012/

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume7514 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

ConferenceInternational Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming 2012
Abbreviated titleCP 2012
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityQuebec
Period8/10/1212/10/12
Internet address

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