Free Logic and Infinite Constraint Networks

Conventional constraint systems are suitable for finding assignments to a finite set of parameters such that a set of constraints are satisfied. However, in generalized problem-solving, the set of parameters for which values must be found is only a subset of a much larger (possibly infinite) set of parameters, and the membership of this subset is dependent on conditions whose truth or falsity can only be determined dynamically. Conventional constraint systems are not suitable for such problems because conventional constraint processing requires that the set of parameters for which values are to be found should be fixed a priori. In this paper, we show how the conventional notion of constraint processing can be generalized to address the broader class of problem mentioned above.