Graph Morphing via Orthogonal Box Drawings

Abstract: A graph is a set of vertices, with some pairwise connections given by a set of edges. A graph drawing, such as a node-link diagram, visualizes a graph with geometric features. One of the most common forms of a graph drawings are straight-line point drawings, which represent each vertex with a point and each edge with a line segment connecting its relevant points, and poly-line point drawings, which more generally allow edges to be represented by poly-lines. Of particular interest to this work are planar straight-line drawings and planar poly-line drawings, in which no two vertices share a location, and no two edges cross (except at shared endpoints). We study the morphing problem for planar drawings: Given two planar drawings of the same graph, can we output a continuous transformation (a “morph”) from one to the other, such that each intermediate drawing is also a planar drawing? It is quite easy to test if a morph exists, but the test is non-constructive. We are interested in the problem of constructing morphs with simple representations. Specifically, we study sequences of linear morphs, which represent the overall morph with a sequence of drawings, so that each pair of adjacent drawings in the sequence can be linearly interpolated. Each drawing in the sequence is called an “explicit” intermediate drawing, since it given explicitly in the output. Previous work has shown that a pair of straight-line drawings of an n-vertex graph can be morphed using O(n) linear morphs, so that every explicit intermediate drawing is a straight-line drawing. We show that an additional constraint can be added, at the cost of a small tradeoff: We further restrict the explicit intermediate drawings to lie on an O(n)×O(n) grid, while allowing them to be poly-line drawings with O(1) bends per edge. Additionally, we give an algorithm that computes this sequence in O(n^2) time, which is known to be tight. Our methods involve morphing another class of drawings—orthogonal box drawings—which represent each vertex with an axis-aligned rectangle, and each edge with an orthogonal poly-line. Our methods for morphing orthogonal box drawings make use of methods known for morphing orthogonal point drawings, which are poly-line drawings that restrict each poly-line to use only axis-aligned line segments

Computing Low-Cost Convex Partitions for Planar Point Sets with Randomized Local Search and Constraint Programming (CG Challenge)

The Minimum Convex Partition problem (MCP) is a problem in which a point-set is used as the vertices for a planar subdivision, whose number of edges is to be minimized. In this planar subdivision, the outer face is the convex hull of the point-set, and the interior faces are convex. In this paper, we discuss and implement the approach to this problem using randomized local search, and different initialization techniques based on maximizing collinearity. We also solve small instances optimally using a SAT formulation. We explored this as part of the 2020 Computational Geometry Challenge, where we placed first as Team UBC

Conflict Optimization for Binary CSP Applied to Minimum Partition into Plane Subgraphs and Graph Coloring

CG:SHOP is an annual geometric optimization challenge and the 2022 edition proposed the problem of coloring a certain geometric graph defined by line segments. Surprisingly, the top three teams used the same technique, called conflict optimization. This technique has been introduced in the 2021 edition of the challenge, to solve a coordinated motion planning problem. In this paper, we present the technique in the more general framework of binary constraint satisfaction problems (binary CSP). Then, the top three teams describe their different implementations of the same underlying strategy. We evaluate the performance of those implementations to vertex color not only geometric graphs, but also other types of graphs.Comment: To appear at ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmic

Coordinated Motion Planning Through Randomized k-Opt (CG Challenge)

This paper examines the approach taken by team gitastrophe in the CG:SHOP 2021 challenge. The challenge was to find a sequence of simultaneous moves of square robots between two given configurations that minimized either total distance travelled or makespan (total time). Our winning approach has two main components: an initialization phase that finds a good initial solution, and a k-opt local search phase which optimizes this solution. This led to a first place finish in the distance category and a third place finish in the makespan category

Precision measurement of the structure of the CMS inner tracking system using nuclear interactions

The structure of the CMS inner tracking system has been studied using nuclear interactions of hadrons striking its material. Data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded in 2015 at the LHC are used to reconstruct millions of secondary vertices from these nuclear interactions. Precise positions of the beam pipe and the inner tracking system elements, such as the pixel detector support tube, and barrel pixel detector inner shield and support rails, are determined using these vertices. These measurements are important for detector simulations, detector upgrades, and to identify any changes in the positions of inactive elements

Precision measurement of the structure of the CMS inner tracking system using nuclear interactions

The structure of the CMS inner tracking system has been studied using nuclear interactions of hadrons striking its material. Data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded in 2015 at the LHC are used to reconstruct millions of secondary vertices from these nuclear interactions. Precise positions of the beam pipe and the inner tracking system elements, such as the pixel detector support tube, and barrel pixel detector inner shield and support rails, are determined using these vertices. These measurements are important for detector simulations, detector upgrades, and to identify any changes in the positions of inactive elements