Synthesis of Search Algorithms from High-Level CP Models

The ability to specify CP programs in terms of a declarative model and a search procedure is instrumental to the industrial CP successes. Yet, writing search procedures is often difficult for novices or people accustomed to model & run approaches. The viewpoint adopted in this paper argues for the synthesis of a search from the declarative model to exploit the problem instance structures. The intent is not to eliminate the search. Instead, it is to have a default that performs adequately in the majority of cases while retaining the ability to write full-fledged procedures. Empirical results demonstrate that the approach is viable, yielding procedures approaching and sometimes rivaling hand-crafted searches.