Implement min-conflicts heuristic (value picking optimization)

[NolanVH]

Description

The min conflicts optimization is an approach to the search problem which differs from the backtracking search. The min conflicts search can be described as follows:

• all variables are assigned values
• a set of variables which violate a constraint or many constraints is created
• a variable from the set is randomly chosen and assigned a new value which minimizes the number of conflicts
• this is repeated for a fixed number of iterations until a solution is found or the max number of iterations (user defined) is reached

The specific search algorithm to be used (backtracking or min-conflicts) should be easy to select as needed.

Acceptance Criteria

• [x] The min-conflicts search algorithm is implemented
• [x] The search algorithm is easy to select
• [x] The hard constraints have been adjusted to work with the min-conflicts search algorithm

Related issues

Child of #11 and #12

Additional Resources

Add attachments, external links, etc here.

[strdavis]

• Initial implementation of min-conflicts algorithm done via pair programming with Nolan.
• Tested min-conflicts algorithm on CSP 1 with a single unary constraint (professor qualifications).
• In order to incorporate constraints with the min-conflicts algorithm, must implement the var_satisfied() function for each.