Solving Over-constrained Problems Using Network Analysis

Abstract

Requirements for which no recommendation can be calculated are unsatisfactory for the user. The detection and resolution of conflicts between those requirements and the product assortment is an important functionality to successfully guide the user to a solution. In this paper we introduce a new approach how to identify minimal conflict sets in over constrained problems through network analysis. Conflict sets offer the information which constraints (requirements) need to be changed to retrieve a solution. Random constrained problems are used to evaluate our approach and compare it to existing conflict detection algorithms. A major result of this evaluation is that our approach is superior in settings typical for knowledge-based recommendation problems.