Constraint-based Vehicle Configuration: A Case Study

Abstract

The existence of powerful constraint satisfaction algorithms is not the sole reason of the wide success of the CSP framework. The interest of this framework is also that it offers a generic and simple way for the modeling of real world applications. Nevertheless these applications call for tasks that often differ from a classical search for a solution. The aim of the present paper is not to provide the AI community with new and efficient algorithms, but with new requests and more generally new needs. All of them are issued from the analysis of the business needs that arise around the design and exploitation of the vehicle range at Renault, the French car manufacturer. Viewing this application as a fruitful source of research problematics for the community, we present a formalization and a theoretical study, in terms on complexity, of the series of requests risen by the application.

Speeding up Derivative Configuration from Product Platforms

“…For instance, it is well known by the car manufacturing community that the first issue of car configurators is performance [38]. Thus, as soon as customers make a configuration choice, they want to find out what the consequences of the choice are.…”

Recommendation Heuristics for Improving Product Line Configuration Processes

“…There are several academic tools dealing with configuration of product line models (e.g., SPLOT, FaMa 1 , VariaMos [21], Feature Plug-in [2] but very few have looked at PL tools and their ability to answer industry needs [3]. Jiang et al [18] propose a constraint-based recommendation technique that gives to stakeholders a minimal set of repair actions in situations where no solution can be found for their configuration choices.…”

“…In the PL approach, the valid combinations of reusable artifacts are represented by means of a product line model. There are several notations used in the industry to represent their product lines models; for instance, the Orthogonal Variability Model (OVM) notation [26], the DO-PLER notation [11] and the constraint-based notations [3,22]. Since the industrial case used in this chapter is originality presented in the OVM notation, we will use this formalism to illustrate the application of the approach.…”

“…This heuristic follows also the principle of dealing with hard cases first. Rationale: In industrial languages like the constraint networks [3] where there are no root artifacts to guide the configuration process, this heuristic allows identifying the variables that mostly reduce the number of choices in a configuration process. Example: In the EPB model, the PullerCable variant is one of the most constrained in this model, being linked to the way force is distributed among braking systems (ForceDistributionDesignAlternatives), internal system behavior (ForceMonitorOnEngineStop) and physical implementation (DC motor).…”

“…The product line (PL) is often so complex, that it is not even possible to make an extensive list of all possible products. One example is the vehicle product line of the French manufacturer Renault, which can lead to 10 21 configurations for the "Traffic" van product family [3]. On the one hand, in Internet applications, it is important to ensure short response times and support multiple users (e.g.…”