CS 188: Artificial Intelligence

Constraint Satisfaction Problems

Instructor: Anca Dragan

University of California, Berkeley
[These slides adapted from Dan Klein and Pieter Abbeel]
 Constraint Satisfaction Problems

N variables
domain D
constraints
x2

x1

states goal test successor function

partial assignment complete; satisfies constraints assign an unassigned variable
 What is Search For?
o Assumptions about the world: a single agent, deterministic actions, fully
observed state, discrete state space

o Planning: sequences of actions

o The path to the goal is the important thing
o Paths have various costs, depths
o Heuristics give problem-specific guidance

o Identification: assignments to variables

o The goal itself is important, not the path
o All paths at the same depth (for some formulations)
o CSPs are specialized for identification problems
 Constraint Satisfaction Problems

o Standard search problems:

o State is a “black box”: arbitrary data structure
o Goal test can be any function over states
o Successor function can also be anything

o Constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs):

o A special subset of search problems
o State is defined by variables Xi with values
from a domain D (sometimes D depends on i)
o Goal test is a set of constraints specifying
allowable combinations of values for subsets of
variables

o Allows useful general-purpose algorithms with

more power than standard search algorithms
CSP Examples
 Example: Map Coloring
o Variables:

o Domains:

o Constraints: adjacent regions must have

different colors
Implicit:

Explicit:

o Solutions are assignments satisfying all

constraints, e.g.:
Constraint Graphs
 Example: N-Queens
o Formulation 1:
o Variables:
o Domains:
o Constraints
 Example: N-Queens

o Formulation 2:
o Variables:

o Domains:

o Constraints:
Implicit:

Explicit:
 Example: Cryptarithmetic
X1

o Variables:

o Domains:

o Constraints:
Example: Sudoku
§ Variables:
§ Each (open) square
§ Domains:
§ {1,2,…,9}
§ Constraints:

9-way alldiff for each column

9-way alldiff for each row
9-way alldiff for each region
(or can have a bunch of
pairwise inequality
constraints)
 Real-World CSPs
o Assignment problems: e.g., who teaches what class
o Timetabling problems: e.g., which class is offered when and where?
o Hardware configuration
o Transportation scheduling
o Factory scheduling
o Circuit layout
o Fault diagnosis
o … lots more!

o Many real-world problems involve real-valued variables…

Solving CSPs
 Standard Search Formulation
o Standard search formulation of CSPs

o States defined by the values assigned

so far (partial assignments)
o Initial state: the empty assignment, {}
o Successor function: assign a value to an
unassigned variable
o Goal test: the current assignment is
complete and satisfies all constraints

o We’ll start with the straightforward,

naïve approach, then improve it
 Search Methods
o What would BFS do?

{}
{WA=g} {WA=r} … {NT=g} …

[Demo: coloring -- dfs]

 Search Methods
o What would BFS do?

o What would DFS do?

o let’s see!

o What problems does naïve search have?

[Demo: coloring -- dfs]

Video of Demo Coloring -- DFS
Backtracking Search
 Backtracking Search
o Backtracking search is the basic uninformed algorithm for solving CSPs
o Idea 1: One variable at a time
o Variable assignments are commutative, so fix ordering -> better branching factor!
o I.e., [WA = red then NT = green] same as [NT = green then WA = red]
o Only need to consider assignments to a single variable at each step

o Idea 2: Check constraints as you go

o I.e. consider only values which do not conflict previous assignments
o Might have to do some computation to check the constraints
o “Incremental goal test”

o Depth-first search with these two improvements

is called backtracking search (not the best name)
o Can solve n-queens for n » 25
Backtracking Example

[Demo: coloring -- backtracking]

Video of Demo Coloring – Backtracking
 Backtracking Search

o Backtracking = DFS + variable-ordering + fail-on-

violation
o What are the choice points?
 Improving Backtracking

o General-purpose ideas give huge gains in speed

o Ordering:
o Which variable should be assigned next?
o In what order should its values be tried?

o Filtering: Can we detect inevitable failure early?

 Filtering

Keep track of domains for unassigned variables and cross off bad options
 Filtering: Forward Checking
o Filtering: Keep track of domains for unassigned variables and cross off bad
options
o Forward checking: Cross off values that violate a constraint when added to the
existing assignment

NT Q
WA
SA NSW
V

[Demo: coloring -- forward checking]

Video of Demo Coloring – Backtracking with Forward
Checking
 Filtering: Constraint Propagation
o Forward checking propagates information from assigned to unassigned
variables, but doesn't provide early detection for all failures:

NT Q
WA
SA
NSW
V

o NT and SA cannot both be blue!

o Why didn’t we detect this yet?
o Constraint propagation: reason from constraint to constraint
 Consistency of A Single Arc
o An arc X ® Y is consistent iff for every x in the tail there is some y in the head
which could be assigned without violating a constraint

NT Q
WA
SA
NSW
V

Delete from the tail!

Forward checking?
Enforcing consistency of arcs pointing to each new assignment
 Arc Consistency of an Entire CSP
o A simple form of propagation makes sure all arcs are consistent:

NT Q
WA SA
NSW
V

o Important: If X loses a value, neighbors of X need to be rechecked!

o Arc consistency detects failure earlier than forward checking
Remember: Delete
o Can be run as a preprocessor or after each assignment from the tail!
o What’s the downside of enforcing arc consistency?
Enforcing Arc Consistency in a CSP

o Runtime: O(n2d3), can be reduced to O(n2d2)

o … but detecting all possible future problems is NP-hard – why?
 Limitations of Arc Consistency

o After enforcing arc

consistency:
o Can have one solution left
o Can have multiple solutions
left
o Can have no solutions left
(and not know it)

o Arc consistency still runs

inside a backtracking search! [Demo: coloring -- forward checking]
[Demo: coloring -- arc consistency]
Video of Demo Coloring – Backtracking with Forward
Checking – Complex Graph
Video of Demo Coloring – Backtracking with Arc
Consistency – Complex Graph