Heterogeneous constraint problems: An outline of the field of work

Abstract

Nowadays, constraint processing has become a mayor issue in engineering applications based on digital product models. A modern product naturally decomposes into numerous subcomponents, the physical behaviour of which can be mathematically described by constraints. By collecting all components’s constraints we obtain a rich mathematical description of the entire product. A surprisingly small number of services implemented on such constraint problems (consistency check; finding solutions resp. conflicts; explanations) can provide engineers with a great deal of useful information and help them solve their problems.