Set Based Hierarchical Design: A Constraint Satisfaction Approach

Abstract

Abstract Many are the literature reviews where constraint satisfaction is rejected as a candidate solution for design automation. Some point to the combinatorial complexity associated with the solution of large constraint satisfaction problems, others claim it is inadequate to handle the uncertainty prominent in engineering design. In this paper we present a new approach in which hierarchical decomposition techniques exploit sensitivity to reduce combinatorial complexity and uncertainty is modeled using conservative enclosures of sets of possible solutions.