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