{"type":"ScholarlyArticle","title":"A Framework for Constraint Based Local Search using Essence","authors":[{"name":"Özgür Akgün","slug":"ozgur-akgun","given":"Özgür","family":"Akgün","affiliation":""},{"name":"Saad Attieh","slug":"saad-attieh","given":"Saad","family":"Attieh","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"Ian P. Gent","slug":"ian-p-gent","given":"Ian P.","family":"Gent","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"Christopher Jefferson","slug":"christopher-jefferson","given":"Christopher","family":"Jefferson","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"Ian Miguel","slug":"ian-miguel","given":"Ian","family":"Miguel","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"Peter Nightingale","slug":"peter-nightingale","given":"Peter","family":"Nightingale","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"András Z. Salamon","slug":"andras-z-salamon","given":"András Z.","family":"Salamon","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"Patrick Spracklen","slug":"patrick-spracklen","given":"Patrick","family":"Spracklen","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"},{"name":"James Wetter","slug":"james-wetter","given":"James","family":"Wetter","affiliation":"School of Computer Science , University of St Andrews , UK"}],"abstract":"Structured Neighbourhood Search (SNS) is a framework for constraint-based local search for problems expressed in the Essence abstract constraint specification language.  The local search explores a structured neighbourhood, where each state in the neighbourhood preserves a high level structural feature of the problem. SNS derives  highly structured problem-specific neighbourhoods automatically and directly from the features of the Essence specification of the problem. Hence, neighbourhoods can represent important structural features of the problem, such as partitions of sets, even if that structure is obscured in the low-level input format required by a constraint solver.  SNS expresses each neighbourhood as a constrained optimisation problem, which is solved with a constraint solver. We have implemented SNS, together with automatic generation of neighbourhoods for high level structures, and report high quality results for several optimisation problems.","doi":"10.24963/ijcai.2018/173","url":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/173","pdf":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/0173.pdf","markdown":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/173.md","bibtex":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/bibtex/173","volume":{"slug":"2018","title":"Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence","short_title":"IJCAI 2018","url":"https://ijcai.org/proceedings/2018/","year":2018,"location":"Stockholm","dates":"13-19 July 2018","editors":"Jérôme Lang","isbn":"978-0-9992411-2-7","publisher":"International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization","doi_prefix":"10.24963/ijcai.2018"},"section":"Constraints and SAT","track":"Main track","number":173,"pages":{"first":1242,"last":1248},"keywords":["Constraints and SAT: Modeling;Formulation","Constraints and SAT: Constraints: Solvers and Tools","Constraints and SAT: Constraint Optimisation","Constraints and SAT: Constraint Satisfaction"],"videos":[],"references":[{"position":1,"raw":"[Akgün et al., 2011] Özgür Akgün, Ian Miguel, Chris Jeffer- son, Alan M. 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