Extended DCSP Approach on Product Configuration with Cost Estimation

Constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) has been considered as an effective way to represent and solve product family configuration tasks. However, classical CSP-based configuration models are not powerful enough to capture the inherent nature of configuration tasks such as undetermined component number and component structure. We propose an extended dynamic constraint satisfaction (DCSP) scheme that captures and takes advantage of the hierarchy of constituents and derivation relationships among constituents from the view of a product family such that the constraint network of DCSP-based configuration extends incrementally. As cost is a critical criterion for successful configuration, we integrate cost estimation into our DCSP-based configuration scheme to provide enhanced support for product configuration. We also discuss mapping relationships among product data models and the concepts of our DCSP-based configuration scheme to facilitate data conversion. An augmented backtracking searching process is also proposed based on the extended DCSP-based configuration system.