On Translating MiniZinc Constraint Models into Fitness Function for Evolutionary Algorithms: Application to Continuous Placement Problems

Thierry Martinez (1) , François Fages (1)

1 Lifeware - Computational systems biology and optimization

MiniZinc is a solver-independent constraint modeling language which is increasingly used in the constraint programming community. It can be used to compare different solvers which are currently based on either constraint programming, Boolean satisfiability or mixed integer linear programming. In this paper we show how MiniZinc models can be compiled into fitness functions for evolutionary algorithms. More specifically, we describe the translation of FlatZinc models into fitness functions over the reals and their use in the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategy (CMA-ES) solver. We illustrate this approach, and evaluate it, on the modeling and solving of complex shape continuous placement problems.

Domaines: Langage de programmation [cs.PL]; Mathématique discrète [cs.DM]

Thierry Martinez, François Fages. On Translating MiniZinc Constraint Models into Fitness Function for Evolutionary Algorithms: Application to Continuous Placement Problems. Proceedings of the sixth Workshop on Bin Packing and Placement Constraints BPPC'15, associated to CP'15, 2015, Cork, Ireland. ⟨hal-01236263⟩