Abstract:
In this paper, we propose a new language construct, called AR (Action Rules), and describe how various propagators for finite-domain constraints can be implemented in it. An action rule specifies a pattern for agents, an action that the agents can carry out, and an event pattern for events that can activate the agents. AR combines the goal-oriented execution model of logic programming with the event-driven execution model. This hybrid execution model facilitates programming constraint propagators. A propagator for a constraint is an agent that maintains the consistency of the constraint and is activated by the updates of the domain variables in the constraint. AR has a much stronger descriptive power than indexicals, the language widely used in the current finite-domain constraint systems, and is flexible for implementing not only interval-consistency but also arc-consistency algorithms. As examples, we present the implementation of a weak arc-consistency algorithm for the all distinct constraint and a hybrid algorithm for n-ary linear equality constraints. B-Prolog has been extended to accommodate action rules. Benchmarking shows that the performance of B-Prolog as a CLP(FD) system compares favorably with the fastest systems available now. 1
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