Core competence

Building upon our foundations of scientific research in the constraint programming field, deep knowledge of modern computational algorithms, as well as rich experience in developing various software systems, LEDAS is advancing three main technologies with the provisional names, "Intervals", "Geometry" and "Scheduling".

"Intervals" is historically the original field of company competence. Design, modeling and planning with various types of parameters and constraints (engineering, geometric, temporal) are the keys to automation in many business processes. Toyota Motor Corporation, for example, a company known worldwide for its wide range of models, made a truly revolutionary breakthrough only after having utilized this set-based design technology. Working with the multiple parameter values such as intervals or enumerations also opens new horizons for a design engineer in visualization, editing and exchange. This allows engineers to communicate with other developers resulting in a particularly natural and effective route towards conceptual product design.

Over 20 years ago in the beginning of 1980's, the Russian mathematician Alexander Narinyani, then at the head of the AI Laboratory in the Computation Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of LEDAS), suggested a novel theory involving the conception of sub-defined models. This particular mathematical apparatus enables users to work effectively with multiple parameter values in order to narrow domains where solutions are located; a critical step in performing optimization. Ten years later this conception was acknowledged in the western scientific world and subsequently rediscovered under the name "interval constraints". LEDAS company experts have accumulated unique experience in developing interval algorithms and implementing interval constraints into applications in order to perform automation tasks in many industrial areas.

LEDAS has wide berth of experience in automating planning and scheduling tasks. The initial progress in this area was based on the sub-defined model apparatus and was carried out towards the end of 1980's. Since then, LEDAS experts have created an integrated technology for the rapid suboptimal solution search for scheduling problems that effectively combines our technical expertise with other published, advanced results in this area.

LEDAS has worked with geometric applications of interval constraints for quite a long time. During this period, significant progress in solving parametric drafting and three-dimensional design problems has been made. In 2003, the company for the first time entered the software components market for these systems and has since been an active participant.

In each of the technological areas enumerated above, the company is carrying out intensive research projects, some of which have already yielded results in the form of successfully sold commercial solutions. In a notable example, Arnaud Ribadeau-Dumas, Research Director, Dassault Systemes claims that, "The cooperation between Dassault Systemes and LEDAS has been expanding steadily. The total value of our contracts has more than doubled over the last two years. Certain key components developed by LEDAS have become part of CATIA V5 or will be incorporated soon."