Hierarchical constraint satisfaction based on subdefinite models

Abstract

Hierarchical Constraint Satisfaction Problems (HCSPs) are at the centre of attention in the fields of computer aided design and user interfaces. Till recently, the algorithms proposed to solve the problems of this class focused only on its small subclasses (like problems with acyclic constraint graph or linear systems). Here we present a new family of hierarchical constraint satisfaction algorithms based on the mechanism of subdefinite models. The main advantage of the proposed algorithms is their applicability to a broad class of problems, including cyclic and non-linear ones. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001.