"Model and Run" Constraint Networks with a MILP Engine

11/27/2016

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by   Thierry Petit, et al.

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Constraint Programming (CP) users need significant expertise in order to model their problems appropriately, notably to select propagators and search strategies. This puts the brakes on a broader uptake of CP. In this paper, we introduce MICE, a complete Java CP modeler that can use any Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solver as a solution technique. Our aim is to provide an alternative tool for democratizing the "CP-style" modeling thanks to its simplicity of use, with reasonable solving capabilities. Our contributions include new decompositions of (reified) constraints and constraints on numerical variables.