Implementation of Complex Projects Using Constraint Programming

During the implementation of the complex projects, all planned activities and resources must be taken into account. In general, it is necessary to assign the resources to the activities, but to also avoid simultaneous engagement of resources for multiple activities. In order to solve these problems, various techniques and methods are used. Mathematic and integer programming, genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, or taboo search are just some of the techniques used for solving this problem. Constraint programming comes from artificial intelligence i.e. papers from this area that occurred in 1960s and 1970s. Constraints exist in every segment of human environment. They represent a natural medium for expressing relations that exist in the physical world. Fulfilment of constraints is used in many different areas. Problems such as scheduling, allocations etc. are typical examples of constraints problems, where the basic concept of constraint programming can be applied. This paper considered implementation of the Bor Regional Development Project. Development of constraint programming was followed by the development of appropriate tools. B-Prolog was used in this paper. Many systems, including B-Prolog, enable interface with classic object-oriented languages, such as C++ or Java. One of the greatest advantages is the possibility of simple modelling, even for beginners in planning and implementation of the project.