Applying Incremental Answer Set Solving to Product Configuration

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of incremental answer set solving in product configuration, enabling step-wise, controlled, and efficient reasoning about complex configuration problems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of incremental ASP to product configuration, allowing for controlled, step-wise problem solving aligned with configuration actions.

Findings

Demonstrates how incremental ASP can simulate deterministic configuration algorithms.

Shows how to model user actions within the incremental solving process.

Highlights performance benefits of controlling non-determinism.

Abstract

In this paper, we apply incremental answer set solving to product configuration. Incremental answer set solving is a step-wise incremental approach to Answer Set Programming (ASP). We demonstrate how to use this technique to solve product configurations problems incrementally. Every step of the incremental solving process corresponds to a predefined configuration action. Using complex domain-specific configuration actions makes it possible to tightly control the level of non-determinism and performance of the solving process. We show applications of this technique for reasoning about product configuration, like simulating the behavior of a deterministic configuration algorithm and describing user actions.