Bounded Combinatorial Reconfiguration with Answer Set Programming

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel ASP-based approach called bounded combinatorial reconfiguration for solving solution space problems, demonstrating its effectiveness through empirical analysis and winning the CoRe Challenge 2022.

Contribution

It presents the design and implementation of bounded combinatorial reconfiguration using ASP, including an encoding for independent set reconfiguration and empirical validation.

Findings

recongo ranked first in the CoRe Challenge 2022 shortest metric

the ASP encoding effectively solves independent set reconfiguration

the approach covers all metrics of the solver track

Abstract

We develop an approach called bounded combinatorial reconfiguration for solving combinatorial reconfiguration problems based on Answer Set Programming (ASP). The general task is to study the solution spaces of source combinatorial problems and to decide whether or not there are sequences of feasible solutions that have special properties. The resulting recongo solver covers all metrics of the solver track in the most recent international competition on combinatorial reconfiguration (CoRe Challenge 2022). recongo ranked first in the shortest metric of the single-engine solvers track. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of bounded combinatorial reconfiguration, and present an ASP encoding of the independent set reconfiguration problem that is one of the most studied combinatorial reconfiguration problems. Finally, we present empirical analysis considering all instances of CoRe Challenge 2022.