Éléments de flexibilité et d'efficacité en programmation par contraintes

Historiquement, la programmation par contraintes est une discipline situee a la croisee de nombreux domaines comme la recherche operationnelle, l’analyse numerique, le calcul symbolique, la programmation logique et l’intelligence artificielle.Raisonner par « contraintes » c’est s’interroger sur les proprietes intrinseques caracterisant la semantique d’un probleme. Nous entendons par la que cette discipline a pour vocation de s’abstraire autant que possible de tout raisonnement operationnel afin de se concentrer sur une specification conceptuelle de chaque probleme. En cela, la programmation par contraintes est un paradigme declaratif. Aujourd’hui, tout systeme de programmation par contraintes se doit de proposer trois composantes essentielles que sont la propagation, la recherche et la modelisation. Dans ce contexte, parler de flexibilite et d’efficacite c’est s’interroger sur la part qu’occupe chacun des elements de ce triptyque du point de vue d’un utilisateur. L’objet de cette habilitation est donc de synthetiser differents elements et questionnements autour d’aspects lies a la propagation, aux filtrages et a la strategie de recherche dans les systemes de contraintes. Plus precisement, mon interet s’est porte sur l’analyse des strategies de propagation dans les systemes de contraintes, le comportement des algorithmes de filtrages au sein de ces strategies de propagation, mais aussi la prise en compte de besoin metiers de plus en plus pressants autour de strategies de recherche pour les problemes d’optimisation. Le lien entre ces elements a ete porte par une interrogation permanente sur la dichotomie entre une vision tres conceptuelle de la programmation par contraintes, reposant sur la notion de declarativite (l’outil de resolution etant alors entierement cache a l’utilisateur), et une vision tres operationnelle ou l’utilisateur final souhaite maitriser parfaitement son processus de resolution : Quelle strategie de recherche adopter et pour quel probleme ? Quelle contrainte / filtrage utiliser et dans quel contexte ? L’optimalite est-elle un besoin ou la recherche d’une solution de bonne qualite est-elle suffisante ?

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