Solving Space Planning Problems Using Constraint Technology

Constraint programming techniques have proven their eeciency in solving high combinatory problems. In this paper, we study the adaptation , the extension and the limits of those techniques in the space planning problem which consists in nding the locations and the sizes of several objects under geometric constraints in a location space. For all that, we deene the formalism of Geometric Constraint Satisfaction Problem (GCSP) with geometric domains for representing the position variables of the objects. We propose in particular an intelligent and geometric back-track based on constraint propagations. Then we present our environment dedicated to problems with rectangles of variable sizes.