Functional relations are ubiquitous in combinatorial problems – the Global Constraint Catalog lists 120 functional constraints. This paper argues that the ability to express functional constraints with functional syntax leads to more elegant and readable models, and that it enables a better translation of the models to different underlying solving technologies such as CP, MIP, or SAT. Yet, most...

The strand symmetric model is a phylogenetic model designed to reflect the symmetry inherent in the double-stranded structure of DNA. We show that the set of known phylogenetic invariants for the general strand symmetric model of the three leaf claw tree entirely defines the ideal. This knowledge allows one to determine the vanishing ideal of the general strand symmetric model of any trivalent ...

The problem of quantiier elimination, or projection, is to reduce the dimensions of a constraint to the desired ones without changing the solution set. Such a method is best known for linear dense domains. Systems like ECL i PS e and CLP(R) provide a projection module to eliminate the dead variables of the linear part of answers. But elimination can be more than a lter of the answer. It can als...

Decomposition methods are used to convert general constraint satisfaction problems into an equivalent tree-structured problem that can be solved more effectively. Recently, diagnosis algorithms for treestructured systems have been introduced, but the prerequisites of coupling these algorithms to the outcome of decomposition methods have not been analyzed in detail, thus limiting their diagnosti...

Adding external knowledge improves the results for ill-posed problems. In this paper we present a new multi-level optimization framework for image registration when adding landmark constraints on the transformation. Previous approaches are based on a fixed discretization and lack of allowing for continuous landmark positions that are not on grid points. Our novel approach overcomes these proble...

A novel geometric modeling and calculation method for forward displacement analysis of the 6-3 Stewart platforms is proposed by using conformal algebra (CGA) framework. Firstly, two formulas between 2-blade 1-blade are formulated. Secondly, expressions spherical joints moving platform given via CGA operation. Thirdly, a coordinate-invariant constraint equation deduced. Fourthly, 16-degree univa...

A direct method called fixation is introduced for solving the general motion vision problem, arbitrary motion relative to an arbitrary environment. This method results in a linear constraint equation which explicitly expresses the rotational velocity in terms of the translational velocity. The combination of this constraint equation with the Brightness-Change Constraint Equation solves the gene...

Lifted probabilistic inference algorithms exploit regularities in the structure of graphical models to perform inference more efficiently. More specifically, they identify groups of interchangeable variables and perform inference once for each group, as opposed to once for each variable. The groups are defined by means of constraints, so the flexibility of the grouping is determined by the expr...