Robust Lazy Conflict Detection via Multi-Conflict Extraction and Genetic Diversity Control

Abstract

Detecting minimal conflict sets is essential for providing meaningful feedback in knowledge-based configuration. While lazy conflict detection addresses runtime efficiency by predetermining conflict sets offline using a genetic algorithm, it suffers from low conflict coverage, stagnation, and instability. We propose a robust enhancement that integrates multi-conflict extraction and genetic diversity control to overcome these limitations. Our method extends conflict discovery per evaluation and introduces three diversity mechanisms: full population reproduction, weighted genetic operators, and adaptive extinction. Empirical evaluations on five real-world configuration knowledge bases show that our approach recovers up to 85% of conflict sets, reduces solver calls by up to 73%, and achieves higher result stability. These improvements demonstrate the scalability and reliability of enhanced lazy conflict detection for interactive configuration systems.