19 research outputs found
Unfolding Orthogonal Terrains
It is shown that every orthogonal terrain, i.e., an orthogonal (right-angled)
polyhedron based on a rectangle that meets every vertical line in a segment,
has a grid unfolding: its surface may be unfolded to a single non-overlapping
piece by cutting along grid edges defined by coordinate planes through every
vertex.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 5 references. First revision adds Figure 7, and
improves Figure 6. Second revision further improves Figure 7, and adds one
clarifying sentence. Third corrects label in Figure 7. Fourth revision
corrects a sentence in the conclusion about the class of shapes now known to
be grid-unfoldabl
Vertex-Unfoldings of Simplicial Polyhedra
We present two algorithms for unfolding the surface of any polyhedron, all of
whose faces are triangles, to a nonoverlapping, connected planar layout. The
surface is cut only along polyhedron edges. The layout is connected, but it may
have a disconnected interior: the triangles are connected at vertices, but not
necessarily joined along edges.Comment: 10 pages; 7 figures; 8 reference
Enumerating Foldings and Unfoldings between Polygons and Polytopes
We pose and answer several questions concerning the number of ways to fold a
polygon to a polytope, and how many polytopes can be obtained from one polygon;
and the analogous questions for unfolding polytopes to polygons. Our answers
are, roughly: exponentially many, or nondenumerably infinite.Comment: 12 pages; 10 figures; 10 references. Revision of version in
Proceedings of the Japan Conference on Discrete and Computational Geometry,
Tokyo, Nov. 2000, pp. 9-12. See also cs.CG/000701
Unfolding Manhattan Towers
We provide an algorithm for unfolding the surface of any orthogonal
polyhedron that falls into a particular shape class we call Manhattan Towers,
to a nonoverlapping planar orthogonal polygon. The algorithm cuts along edges
of a 4x5x1 refinement of the vertex grid.Comment: Full version of abstract that appeared in: Proc. 17th Canad. Conf.
Comput. Geom., 2005, pp. 204--20
Some Polycubes Have No Edge Zipper Unfolding
It is unknown whether every polycube (polyhedron constructed by gluing cubes
face-to-face) has an edge unfolding, that is, cuts along edges of the cubes
that unfolds the polycube to a single nonoverlapping polygon in the plane. Here
we construct polycubes that have no *edge zipper unfolding* where the cut edges
are further restricted to form a path.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, 9 references. Updated to match the version that
will appear in the Canad. Conf. Comput. Geom., Aug. 202
Epsilon-Unfolding Orthogonal Polyhedra
An unfolding of a polyhedron is produced by cutting the surface and
flattening to a single, connected, planar piece without overlap (except
possibly at boundary points). It is a long unsolved problem to determine
whether every polyhedron may be unfolded. Here we prove, via an algorithm, that
every orthogonal polyhedron (one whose faces meet at right angles) of genus
zero may be unfolded. Our cuts are not necessarily along edges of the
polyhedron, but they are always parallel to polyhedron edges. For a polyhedron
of n vertices, portions of the unfolding will be rectangular strips which, in
the worst case, may need to be as thin as epsilon = 1/2^{Omega(n)}.Comment: 23 pages, 20 figures, 7 references. Revised version improves language
and figures, updates references, and sharpens the conclusio
Unfolding Orthogrids with Constant Refinement
We define a new class of orthogonal polyhedra, called orthogrids, that can be
unfolded without overlap with constant refinement of the gridded surface.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure
An Algorithmic Study of Manufacturing Paperclips and Other Folded Structures
We study algorithmic aspects of bending wires and sheet metal into a
specified structure. Problems of this type are closely related to the question
of deciding whether a simple non-self-intersecting wire structure (a
carpenter's ruler) can be straightened, a problem that was open for several
years and has only recently been solved in the affirmative.
If we impose some of the constraints that are imposed by the manufacturing
process, we obtain quite different results. In particular, we study the variant
of the carpenter's ruler problem in which there is a restriction that only one
joint can be modified at a time. For a linkage that does not self-intersect or
self-touch, the recent results of Connelly et al. and Streinu imply that it can
always be straightened, modifying one joint at a time. However, we show that
for a linkage with even a single vertex degeneracy, it becomes NP-hard to
decide if it can be straightened while altering only one joint at a time. If we
add the restriction that each joint can be altered at most once, we show that
the problem is NP-complete even without vertex degeneracies.
In the special case, arising in wire forming manufacturing, that each joint
can be altered at most once, and must be done sequentially from one or both
ends of the linkage, we give an efficient algorithm to determine if a linkage
can be straightened.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, Latex, to appear in Computational Geometry -
Theory and Application