Heuristic constraint answer set programming for manufacturing problems

Abstract

Constraint answer set programming (CASP) is a family of hybrid approaches integrating answer set programming (ASP) and constraint programming (CP). These hybrid approaches have already proven to be successful in various domains. In this paper we present the CASP solver ASCASS (A Simple Constraint Answer Set Solver) which provides novel methods for defining and exploiting search heuristics. Beyond the possibility of using already built-in problem-independent heuristics, ASCASS allows on the ASP level the definition of problem-dependent variable selection, value selection and pruning strategies which guide the search of the CP solver. In this context, we investigate the applicability and performance of CASP in general and ASCASS in particular in two important manufacturing problem domains: system configuration and job scheduling.