Conjure Revisited: Towards Automated Constraint Modelling

TL;DR

This paper revisits and improves the Conjure system for automated constraint modelling, significantly expanding its language coverage to facilitate easier and more widespread adoption of constraint solving techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a new implementation of Conjure with enhanced coverage of the Essence specification language, advancing automated constraint model generation.

Findings

Expanded language coverage in Conjure system

Improved automation in constraint modelling process

Facilitates wider adoption of constraint solving

Abstract

Automating the constraint modelling process is one of the key challenges facing the constraints field, and one of the principal obstacles preventing widespread adoption of constraint solving. This paper focuses on the refinement-based approach to automated modelling, where a user specifies a problem in an abstract constraint specification language and it is then automatically refined into a constraint model. In particular, we revisit the Conjure system that first appeared in prototype form in 2005 and present a new implementation with a much greater coverage of the specification language Essence.