992 research outputs found
Computing a rectilinear shortest path amid splinegons in plane
We reduce the problem of computing a rectilinear shortest path between two
given points s and t in the splinegonal domain \calS to the problem of
computing a rectilinear shortest path between two points in the polygonal
domain. As part of this, we define a polygonal domain \calP from \calS and
transform a rectilinear shortest path computed in \calP to a path between s and
t amid splinegon obstacles in \calS. When \calS comprises of h pairwise
disjoint splinegons with a total of n vertices, excluding the time to compute a
rectilinear shortest path amid polygons in \calP, our reduction algorithm takes
O(n + h \lg{n}) time. For the special case of \calS comprising of concave-in
splinegons, we have devised another algorithm in which the reduction procedure
does not rely on the structures used in the algorithm to compute a rectilinear
shortest path in polygonal domain. As part of these, we have characterized few
of the properties of rectilinear shortest paths amid splinegons which could be
of independent interest
Ramified rectilinear polygons: coordinatization by dendrons
Simple rectilinear polygons (i.e. rectilinear polygons without holes or
cutpoints) can be regarded as finite rectangular cell complexes coordinatized
by two finite dendrons. The intrinsic -metric is thus inherited from the
product of the two finite dendrons via an isometric embedding. The rectangular
cell complexes that share this same embedding property are called ramified
rectilinear polygons. The links of vertices in these cell complexes may be
arbitrary bipartite graphs, in contrast to simple rectilinear polygons where
the links of points are either 4-cycles or paths of length at most 3. Ramified
rectilinear polygons are particular instances of rectangular complexes obtained
from cube-free median graphs, or equivalently simply connected rectangular
complexes with triangle-free links. The underlying graphs of finite ramified
rectilinear polygons can be recognized among graphs in linear time by a
Lexicographic Breadth-First-Search. Whereas the symmetry of a simple
rectilinear polygon is very restricted (with automorphism group being a
subgroup of the dihedral group ), ramified rectilinear polygons are
universal: every finite group is the automorphism group of some ramified
rectilinear polygon.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure
Polygon Exploration with Time-Discrete Vision
With the advent of autonomous robots with two- and three-dimensional scanning
capabilities, classical visibility-based exploration methods from computational
geometry have gained in practical importance. However, real-life laser scanning
of useful accuracy does not allow the robot to scan continuously while in
motion; instead, it has to stop each time it surveys its environment. This
requirement was studied by Fekete, Klein and Nuechter for the subproblem of
looking around a corner, but until now has not been considered in an online
setting for whole polygonal regions.
We give the first algorithmic results for this important algorithmic problem
that combines stationary art gallery-type aspects with watchman-type issues in
an online scenario: We demonstrate that even for orthoconvex polygons, a
competitive strategy can be achieved only for limited aspect ratio A (the ratio
of the maximum and minimum edge length of the polygon), i.e., for a given lower
bound on the size of an edge; we give a matching upper bound by providing an
O(log A)-competitive strategy for simple rectilinear polygons, using the
assumption that each edge of the polygon has to be fully visible from some scan
point.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, 2 photographs, 3 tables, Latex. Updated some
details (title, figures and text) for final journal revision, including
explicit assumption of full edge visibilit
Evolving fracture patterns: columnar joints, mud cracks, and polygonal terrain
When cracks form in a thin contracting layer, they sequentially break the
layer into smaller and smaller pieces. A rectilinear crack pattern encodes
information about the order of crack formation, as later cracks tend to
intersect with earlier cracks at right angles. In a hexagonal pattern, in
contrast, the angles between all cracks at a vertex are near 120.
However, hexagonal crack patterns are typically only seen when a crack network
opens and heals repeatedly, in a thin layer, or advances by many intermittent
steps into a thick layer. Here it is shown how both types of pattern can arise
from identical forces, and how a rectilinear crack pattern evolves towards a
hexagonal one. Such an evolution is expected when cracks undergo many opening
cycles, where the cracks in any cycle are guided by the positions of cracks in
the previous cycle, but when they can slightly vary their position, and order
of opening. The general features of this evolution are outlined, and compared
to a review of the specific patterns of contraction cracks in dried mud,
polygonal terrain, columnar joints, and eroding gypsum-sand cementsComment: 19 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phil. Trans. R. Soc.
A; theme issue on Geophysical Pattern Formation (to appear 2013
Mobile vs. point guards
We study the problem of guarding orthogonal art galleries with horizontal
mobile guards (alternatively, vertical) and point guards, using "rectangular
vision". We prove a sharp bound on the minimum number of point guards required
to cover the gallery in terms of the minimum number of vertical mobile guards
and the minimum number of horizontal mobile guards required to cover the
gallery. Furthermore, we show that the latter two numbers can be calculated in
linear time.Comment: This version covers a previously missing case in both Phase 2 &
Flip Distance Between Triangulations of a Simple Polygon is NP-Complete
Let T be a triangulation of a simple polygon. A flip in T is the operation of
removing one diagonal of T and adding a different one such that the resulting
graph is again a triangulation. The flip distance between two triangulations is
the smallest number of flips required to transform one triangulation into the
other. For the special case of convex polygons, the problem of determining the
shortest flip distance between two triangulations is equivalent to determining
the rotation distance between two binary trees, a central problem which is
still open after over 25 years of intensive study. We show that computing the
flip distance between two triangulations of a simple polygon is NP-complete.
This complements a recent result that shows APX-hardness of determining the
flip distance between two triangulations of a planar point set.Comment: Accepted versio
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