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Compiling finite domain constraints to SAT with BEE*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2012

AMIT METODI  and
MICHAEL CODISH
AMIT METODI
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
MICHAEL CODISH
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
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Abstract

We present BEE, a compiler which enables to encode finite domain constraint problems to CNF. Using BEE both eases the encoding process for the user and also performs transformations to simplify constraints and optimize their encoding to CNF. These optimizations are based primarily on equi-propagation and on partial evaluation, and also on the idea that a given constraint may have various possible CNF encodings. Often, the better encoding choice is made after constraint simplification. BEE is written in Prolog and integrates directly with a SAT solver through a suitable Prolog interface. We demonstrate that constraint simplification is often highly beneficial when solving hard finite domain constraint problems. A BEE implementation is available with this paper.

Keywords

SAT encodingFD constraintsequi-propagationpartial evaluation
Type
Regular Papers
Information
Theory and Practice of Logic Programming , Volume 12 , Issue 4-5: 28th International Conference on Logic Programming , July 2012 , pp. 465 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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