The Aimms Interface to Constraint Programming

We present an extension of the modeling system Aimms to handle constraint programming problems. Our goal is to provide a more accessible interface to CP technology than current systems offer. We first present basic CP modeling constructs that can be realized with minimum changes to the existing syntax. We then discuss the handling of global constraints. Lastly, we present our extensions to modeling scheduling problems, based on the now-classical representation as activities and resources. An important benefit of the Aimms interface to CP is the ease with which hybrid CP/OR solution methods can be developed.