<s>
Knowledge-based	B-General_Concept
configuration	I-General_Concept
,	O
or	O
also	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
product	B-General_Concept
configuration	I-General_Concept
or	O
product	B-General_Concept
customization	I-General_Concept
,	O
is	O
an	O
activity	O
of	O
customising	O
a	O
product	O
to	O
meet	O
the	O
needs	O
of	O
a	O
particular	O
customer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Knowledge-based	B-General_Concept
configuration	I-General_Concept
is	O
a	O
major	O
application	O
area	O
for	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
(	O
AI	B-Application
)	O
,	O
and	O
it	O
is	O
based	O
on	O
modelling	O
of	O
the	O
configurations	O
in	O
a	O
manner	O
that	O
allows	O
the	O
utilisation	O
of	O
AI	B-Application
techniques	O
for	O
searching	O
for	O
a	O
valid	O
configuration	O
to	O
meet	O
the	O
needs	O
of	O
a	O
particular	O
customer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Knowledge-based	B-General_Concept
configuration	I-General_Concept
(	O
of	O
complex	O
products	O
and	O
services	O
)	O
has	O
a	O
long	O
history	O
as	O
an	O
artificial	B-Application
intelligence	I-Application
application	O
area	O
,	O
see	O
,	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
result	O
of	O
a	O
configuration	O
process	O
is	O
a	O
product	B-General_Concept
configuration	I-General_Concept
(	O
concrete	O
configuration	O
)	O
,	O
i.e.	O
,	O
a	O
list	O
of	O
instances	O
and	O
in	O
some	O
cases	O
also	O
connections	O
between	O
these	O
instances	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thus	O
they	O
require	O
(	O
potentially	O
)	O
excessive	O
computation	O
time	O
making	O
heuristic	B-Algorithm
configuration	O
algorithms	O
the	O
preferred	O
choice	O
for	O
complex	O
artifacts	O
(	O
products	O
,	O
services	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Configuration	B-General_Concept
systems	I-General_Concept
or	O
also	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
configurators	O
or	O
mass	O
customization	O
toolkits	O
,	O
are	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
most	O
successfully	O
applied	O
Artificial	B-Application
Intelligence	I-Application
technologies	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Starting	O
with	O
rule-based	O
approaches	O
such	O
as	O
R1/XCON	O
,	O
model-based	O
representations	O
of	O
knowledge	O
(	O
in	O
contrast	O
to	O
rule-based	O
representations	O
)	O
have	O
been	O
developed	O
which	O
strictly	O
separate	O
product	O
domain	O
knowledge	O
from	O
the	O
problem	O
solving	O
one	O
-	O
examples	O
thereof	O
are	O
the	O
constraint	B-Application
satisfaction	I-Application
problem	I-Application
,	O
the	O
Boolean	B-Algorithm
satisfiability	I-Algorithm
problem	I-Algorithm
,	O
and	O
different	O
answer	B-Application
set	I-Application
programming	I-Application
(	O
ASP	O
)	O
representations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Configurators	O
known	O
as	O
characteristic	O
based	O
product	B-General_Concept
configurators	I-General_Concept
use	O
sets	O
of	O
discrete	O
variables	O
that	O
are	O
either	O
binary	O
or	O
have	O
one	O
of	O
several	O
values	O
,	O
and	O
these	O
variables	O
define	O
every	O
possible	O
product	O
variation	O
.	O
</s>
