Forward-Tracking: A Technique for Searching Beyond Failure

In many applications, such as decision support, negotiation, planning, scheduling, etc., one needs to express requirements that can only be partially satisfied. In order to express such requirements, we propose a technique called forward-tracking. Intuitively, forward-tracking is a kind of dual of chronological back-tracking: if a program globally failsto find a solution,then a new execution is started from a program point and a state `forward' in the computationtree. This search technique is applied to the specific paradigm of constraint logic programming, obtaining a powerful extension that preserves all the useful properties of the original scheme. We report on the successful practical application of forward-tracking to the evolutionary training of (constrained) neural networks.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1996
• Where: ICTAI
• Authors: Elena Marchiori, Massimo Marchiori, Joost N. Kok
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Constraint Logic Programming, ICTAI 1996, Successful Practical Application, Technique Called Forward-tracking