An efficient consistency algorithm for the Temporal Constraint Satisfaction Problem

Abstract. Dechter et al. [5] proposed solving the Temporal Constraint Satisfaction Problem (TCSP) by modeling it as a metaCSP, which is a finite CSP with a unique global constraint. The size of this global constraint is exponential in the number of time points in the original TCSP, and generalized-arc consistency is equivalent to finding the minimal network of the TCSP, which is NP-hard. We introduce AC, an efficient consistency algorithm for filtering the meta-CSP. This algorithm significantly reduces the domains of the variables of the meta-CSP without guaranteeing arc-consistency. We use AC as a preprocessing step to solving the meta-CSP. We show experimentally that it dramatically reduces the size of a meta-CSP and significantly enhances the performance of search for finding the minimal network of the corresponding TCSP.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2004
• Where: AICOM
• Authors: Berthe Y. Choueiry, Lin Xu
• Keywords: AICOM 2004, Global Constraint, Temporal Constraint Satisfaction, Unique Global Constraint