On the Implementation of Weak Constraints in WASP

ABSTRACT. Optimization problems in Answer Set Programming (ASP) are usually modeled by means of programs with weak constraints. These programs can be handled by algorithms for solving Maximum Satisfiability (MaxSAT) problems, if properly ported to the ASP framework. This paper reports on the implementation of several of these algorithms in the ASP solver WASP, whose empirical analysis highlights pros and cons of different strategies for computing optimal answer sets.