Inequality-sum : a global constraint capturing the objective function
RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle, Tome 39 (2005) no. 2, pp. 123-139.

This paper introduces a new method to prune the domains of the variables in constrained optimization problems where the objective function is defined by a sum y=Σx i , and where the integer variables x i are subject to difference constraints of the form x j -x i c. An important application area where such problems occur is deterministic scheduling with the mean flow time as optimality criteria. This new constraint is also more general than a sum constraint defined on a set of ordered variables. Classical approaches perform a local consistency filtering after each reduction of the bound of y. The drawback of these approaches comes from the fact that the constraints are handled independently. We introduce here a global constraint that enables to tackle simultaneously the whole constraint system, and thus, yields a more effective pruning of the domains of the x i when the bounds of y are reduced. An efficient algorithm, derived from Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm, is introduced to achieve interval consistency on this global constraint.

DOI : 10.1051/ro:2005007
Classification : 65K05, 90C35
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Régin, Jean-Charles; Rueher, Michel. Inequality-sum : a global constraint capturing the objective function. RAIRO - Operations Research - Recherche Opérationnelle, Tome 39 (2005) no. 2, pp. 123-139. doi : 10.1051/ro:2005007. http://archive.numdam.org/articles/10.1051/ro:2005007/

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