Debugging Unsatisfiable Constraint Models

Kevin Leo, Guido Tack

Abstract: The first constraint model that you write for a new problem is often unsatisfiable, and constraint modelling tools offer little support for debugging. Existing algorithms for computing Minimal Unsatisfiable Subsets (MUSes) can help explain to a user which sets of constraints are causing unsatisfiability. However, these algorithms are usually not aimed at high-level, structured constraint models, and tend to not scale well for them. Furthermore, when used naively, they enumerate sets of solver-level variables and constraints, which may have been introduced by modelling language compilers and are therefore often far removed from the user model.