Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Commons^™

On Path Consistency For Binary Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Christopher G. Reeson

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) provide a flexible and powerful framework for modeling and solving many decision problems of practical importance. Consistency properties and the algorithms for enforcing them on a problem instance are at the heart of Constraint Processing and best distinguish this area from other areas concerned with the same combinatorial problems. In this thesis, we study path consistency (PC) and investigate several algorithms for enforcing it on binary finite CSPs. We also study algorithms for enforcing consistency properties that are related to PC but are stronger or weaker than PC.

We identify and correct errors in the literature …

Practical Tractability Of Csps By Higher Level Consistency And Tree Decomposition, Shant Karakashian

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Constraint Satisfaction is a flexible paradigm for modeling many decision problems in Engineering, Computer Science, and Management. Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) are in general NP-complete and are usually solved with search. Research has identified various islands of tractability, which enable solving certain CSPs with backtrack-free search. For example, one sufficient condition for tractability relates the consistency level of a CSP to treewidth of the CSP's constraint network. However, enforcing higher levels of consistency on a CSP may require the addition of constraints, thus altering the topology of the constraint network and increasing its treewidth. This thesis addresses the following question: …