SIMPL: A System for Integrating Optimization Techniques

In recent years, the Constraint Programming (CP) and Operations Research (OR) communities have explored the advantages of combining CP and OR techniques to formulate and solve combinatorial optimization problems. These advantages include a more versatile modeling framework and the ability to combine complementary strengths of the two solution technologies. This research has reached a stage at which further development would benefit from a general-purpose modeling and solution system. We introduce here a system for integrated modeling and solution called SIMPL. Our approach is to view CP and OR techniques as special cases of a single method rather than as separate methods to be combined. This overarching method consists of an infer-relax-restrict cycle in which CP and OR techniques may interact at any stage. We describe the main features of SIMPL and illustrate its usage with examples.