12,709 research outputs found
Front-to-End Bidirectional Heuristic Search with Near-Optimal Node Expansions
It is well-known that any admissible unidirectional heuristic search
algorithm must expand all states whose -value is smaller than the optimal
solution cost when using a consistent heuristic. Such states are called "surely
expanded" (s.e.). A recent study characterized s.e. pairs of states for
bidirectional search with consistent heuristics: if a pair of states is s.e.
then at least one of the two states must be expanded. This paper derives a
lower bound, VC, on the minimum number of expansions required to cover all s.e.
pairs, and present a new admissible front-to-end bidirectional heuristic search
algorithm, Near-Optimal Bidirectional Search (NBS), that is guaranteed to do no
more than 2VC expansions. We further prove that no admissible front-to-end
algorithm has a worst case better than 2VC. Experimental results show that NBS
competes with or outperforms existing bidirectional search algorithms, and
often outperforms A* as well.Comment: Accepted to IJCAI 2017. Camera ready version with new timing result
Route Planning in Transportation Networks
We survey recent advances in algorithms for route planning in transportation
networks. For road networks, we show that one can compute driving directions in
milliseconds or less even at continental scale. A variety of techniques provide
different trade-offs between preprocessing effort, space requirements, and
query time. Some algorithms can answer queries in a fraction of a microsecond,
while others can deal efficiently with real-time traffic. Journey planning on
public transportation systems, although conceptually similar, is a
significantly harder problem due to its inherent time-dependent and
multicriteria nature. Although exact algorithms are fast enough for interactive
queries on metropolitan transit systems, dealing with continent-sized instances
requires simplifications or heavy preprocessing. The multimodal route planning
problem, which seeks journeys combining schedule-based transportation (buses,
trains) with unrestricted modes (walking, driving), is even harder, relying on
approximate solutions even for metropolitan inputs.Comment: This is an updated version of the technical report MSR-TR-2014-4,
previously published by Microsoft Research. This work was mostly done while
the authors Daniel Delling, Andrew Goldberg, and Renato F. Werneck were at
Microsoft Research Silicon Valle
A Fast Algorithm Finding the Shortest Reset Words
In this paper we present a new fast algorithm finding minimal reset words for
finite synchronizing automata. The problem is know to be computationally hard,
and our algorithm is exponential. Yet, it is faster than the algorithms used so
far and it works well in practice. The main idea is to use a bidirectional BFS
and radix (Patricia) tries to store and compare resulted subsets. We give both
theoretical and practical arguments showing that the branching factor is
reduced efficiently. As a practical test we perform an experimental study of
the length of the shortest reset word for random automata with states and 2
input letters. We follow Skvorsov and Tipikin, who have performed such a study
using a SAT solver and considering automata up to states. With our
algorithm we are able to consider much larger sample of automata with up to
states. In particular, we obtain a new more precise estimation of the
expected length of the shortest reset word .Comment: COCOON 2013. The final publication is available at
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-38768-5_1
Train schedule coordination at an interchange station through agent negotiation
In open railway markets, coordinating train schedules at an interchange station requires negotiation between two independent train operating companies to resolve their operational conflicts. This paper models the stakeholders as software agents and proposes an agent negotiation model to study their interaction. Three negotiation strategies have been devised to represent the possible objectives of the stakeholders, and they determine the behavior in proposing offers to the proponent. Empirical simulation results confirm that the use of the proposed negotiation strategies lead to outcomes that are consistent with the objectives of the stakeholders
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