Recent research has shown that the performance of a single, arbitrarily efficient algorithm can be significantly outperformed by using a portfolio of —possibly on-average slower— algorithms. Within the Constraint Programming (CP) context, a portfolio solver can be seen as a particular constraint solver that exploits the synergy between the...
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June 4, 2015 (v1)PublicationUploaded on: March 25, 2023
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September 8, 2014 (v1)Conference paper
Scheduling a subset of solvers belonging to a given portfolio has proven to be a good strategy when solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). In this paper, we show that this approach can also be effective for Constraint Optimization Problems (COPs). Unlike CSPs, sequential execution of optimization solvers can communicate informa-tion...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
April 13, 2015 (v1)Conference paper
The Constraint Programming (CP) paradigm allows to model and solve Constraint Satisfaction / Optimization Problems (CSPs / COPs). A CP Portfolio Solver is a particular constraint solver that takes advantage of a portfolio of different CP solvers in order to solve a given problem by properly exploiting Algorithm Selection techniques. In this...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
January 2018 (v1)Journal article
In Constraint Programming (CP) a portfolio solver combines a variety of different constraint solvers for solving a given problem. This fairly recent approach enables to significantly boost the performance of single solvers, especially when multicore architectures are exploited. In this work we give a brief overview of the portfolio solver...
Uploaded on: December 4, 2022 -
July 21, 2014 (v1)Journal article
Within the context of constraint solving, a portfolio approach allows one to exploit the synergy between different solvers in order to create a globally better solver. In this paper we present SUNNY: a simple and flexible algorithm that takes advantage of a portfolio of constraint solvers in order to compute — without learning an explicit model...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
March 24, 2014 (v1)Conference paper
Recent research has shown that a single arbitrarily efficient solver can be significantly outperformed by a portfolio of possibly slower on-average solvers. The solver selection is usually done by means of (un)supervised learning techniques which exploit features extracted from the problem specifica-tion. In this paper we present an useful and...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
2016 (v1)Journal article
Within the Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) context, a methodology that has proven to be particularly performant consists of using a portfolio of different constraint solvers. Nevertheless, comparatively few studies and investigations have been done in the world of Constraint Optimization Problems (COP). In this work, we provide a...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
July 25, 2015 (v1)Conference paper
In Constraint Programming (CP), a portfolio solver uses a variety of different solvers for solving a given Constraint Satisfaction / Optimization Problem. In this paper we introduce sunny-cp2: the first parallel CP portfolio solver that enables a dynamic , cooperative, and simultaneous execution of its solvers in a multicore setting. It...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
September 11, 2017 (v1)Conference paper
The SUNNY algorithm is a portfolio technique originally tailored for Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs). SUNNY allows to select a set of solvers to be run on a given CSP, and was proven to be effective in the MiniZinc Challenge, i.e., the yearly international competition for CP solvers. In 2015, SUNNY was compared with other solver...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
March 30, 2016 (v1)Report
The Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) is a well-known scheduling problem aimed at minimizing the makespan of a project subject to temporal and resource constraints. Constraint Programming allows to model and solve RCPSPs in a natural and efficient way, especially when Lazy Clause Generation (LCG) techniques are employed....
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
2013 (v1)Conference paper
Disasters like terrorist attacks, earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcano eruptions are usually unpredictable events that affect a high number of people. We propose an approach that could be used as a decision support tool for a post-disaster response that allows the assignment of victims to hospitals and organizes their transportation via...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
2016 (v1)Report
In Constraint Programming (CP) a portfolio solver combines a variety of different constraint solvers for solving a given problem. This fairly recent approach enables to significantly boost the performance of single solvers, especially when multicore architectures are exploited. In this work we give a brief overview of the portfolio solver...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
July 13, 2015 (v1)Conference paper
It is well recognized that a single, arbitrarily efficient solver can be significantly outperformed by a portfolio solver exploiting a combination of possibly slower on-average different solvers. Despite the success of portfolio solvers within the context of solving competitions, they are rarely used in practice. In this paper we give an...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
February 16, 2014 (v1)Conference paper
Within the Constraints Satisfiability Problems (CSP) context, a methodology that has proved to be particularly performant consists in using a portfolio of different constraint solvers. Nevertheless, comparatively few studies and investigations has been done in the world of Constraint Optimization Problems (COP). In this work, we provide a...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
2016 (v1)Journal article
In the context of Constraint Programming, a portfolio approach exploits the complementary strengths of a portfolio of different constraint solvers. The goal is to predict and run the best solver(s) of the portfolio for solving a new, unseen problem. In this work we reproduce, simulate, and evaluate the performance of different portfolio...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
2013 (v1)Journal article
Recent research in areas such as SAT solving and Integer Linear Programming has shown that the performances of a single arbitrarily efficient solver can be significantly outperformed by a portfolio of possibly slower on-average solvers. We report an empirical evaluation and comparison of portfolio approaches applied to Constraint Satisfaction...
Uploaded on: April 5, 2025 -
November 9, 2015 (v1)Conference paper
Given a collection of algorithms, the Algorithm Selection (AS) problem consists in identifying which of them is the best one for solving a given problem. The selection depends on a set of numerical features that characterize the problem to solve. In this paper we show the impact of feature selection techniques on the performance of the SUNNY...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023 -
July 1, 2015 (v1)Conference paper
Given a collection of algorithms, the Algorithm Selection (AS) problem consists in identifying which of them is the best one for solving a given problem. In this paper we show how we adapted the algorithm selector SUNNY, originally tailored for constraint solving, to deal with general AS problems. Preliminary investigations based on the AS...
Uploaded on: March 25, 2023