An Efficient Translation Scheme for Representing Nurse Rostering Problems as Satisfiability Problems

Stefaan Haspeslagh, Tommy Messelis, Greet Vanden Berghe, Patrick De Causmaecker

2013

Abstract

In this paper we present efficient translation schemes for converting nurse rostering problem instances into satisfiability problems (SAT). We define eight generic constraints types allowing the representation of a large number of nurse rostering constraints commonly found in literature. For each of the generic constraint types, we present efficient translation schemes to SAT. Special attention is paid to the representation of counting constraints. We developed a two way translation scheme for counting constraints using O(nlogn) variables and O(n2) clauses. We translated the instances of the First international nurse rostering competition 2010 to SAT and proved the infeasibility of the instances. The SAT translation was used for a hardness study of nurse rostering problem instances based on SAT features.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Haspeslagh S., Messelis T., Vanden Berghe G. and De Causmaecker P. (2013). An Efficient Translation Scheme for Representing Nurse Rostering Problems as Satisfiability Problems . In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-8565-39-6, pages 303-310. DOI: 10.5220/0004259103030310

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart13,
author={Stefaan Haspeslagh and Tommy Messelis and Greet Vanden Berghe and Patrick De Causmaecker},
title={An Efficient Translation Scheme for Representing Nurse Rostering Problems as Satisfiability Problems},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,},
year={2013},
pages={303-310},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004259103030310},
isbn={978-989-8565-39-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,
TI - An Efficient Translation Scheme for Representing Nurse Rostering Problems as Satisfiability Problems
SN - 978-989-8565-39-6
AU - Haspeslagh S.
AU - Messelis T.
AU - Vanden Berghe G.
AU - De Causmaecker P.
PY - 2013
SP - 303
EP - 310
DO - 10.5220/0004259103030310