A Fire Fighter's Problem

Suppose that a circular fire spreads in the plane at unit speed. A single fire fighter can build a barrier at speed $v>1$. How large must $v$ be to ensure that the fire can be contained, and how should the fire fighter proceed? We contribute two results. First, we analyze the natural curve \mbox{FF}_v that develops when the fighter keeps building, at speed $v$, a barrier along the boundary of the expanding fire. We prove that the behavior of this spiralling curve is governed by a complex function $(e^{w Z} - s \, Z)^{-1}$, where $w$ and $s$ are real functions of $v$. For $v>v_c=2.6144 \ldots$ all zeroes are complex conjugate pairs. If $\phi$ denotes the complex argument of the conjugate pair nearest to the origin then, by residue calculus, the fire fighter needs $\Theta( 1/\phi)$ rounds before the fire is contained. As $v$ decreases towards $v_c$ these two zeroes merge into a real one, so that argument $\phi$ goes to~0. Thus, curve \mbox{FF}_v does not contain the fire if the fighter moves at speed $v=v_c$. (That speed $v>v_c$ is sufficient for containing the fire has been proposed before by Bressan et al. [7], who constructed a sequence of logarithmic spiral segments that stay strictly away from the fire.) Second, we show that any curve that visits the four coordinate half-axes in cyclic order, and in inreasing distances from the origin, needs speed $v>1.618\ldots$, the golden ratio, in order to contain the fire. Keywords: Motion Planning, Dynamic Environments, Spiralling strategies, Lower and upper boundsComment: A preliminary version of the paper was presented at SoCG 201

09171 Abstracts Collection -- Adaptive, Output Sensitive, Online and Parameterized Algorithms

From 19.01. to 24.04.2009, the Dagstuhl Seminar 09171 ``Adaptive, Output Sensitive, Online and Parameterized Algorithms \u27\u27 was held in Schloss Dagstuhl~--~Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

Searching with an Autonomous Robot

We discuss online strategies for visibility-based searching for an object hidden behind a corner, using Kurt3D, a real autonomous mobile robot. This task is closely related to a number of well-studied problems. Our robot uses a three-dimensional laser scanner in a stop, scan, plan, go fashion for building a virtual three-dimensional environment. Besides planning trajectories and avoiding obstacles, Kurt3D is capable of identifying objects like a chair. We derive a practically useful and asymptotically optimal strategy that guarantees a competitive ratio of 2, which differs remarkably from the well-studied scenario without the need of stopping for surveying the environment. Our strategy is used by Kurt3D, documented in a separate video

Growth through the Bottleneck of Limited Budgets

The interplay between supply and demand in the context of growth processes is examined. It is demonstrated that economic development is also significantly influenced by demand under classic, exchange-based hypotheses. Growth assumes that economic operators are willing to change the composition of their budgets. Any additional product must pass through the confines of an existing budget. Growth is not possible without a change in the preferences of solvent buyers. Factors like inventions, changes in society, new fashions or amended regulations can facilitate the integration of additional products. The willingness or resistance to change of potential buyers is thus a possible element in explaining the development of economies that do not fully utilize their production potential. Changes in the structure of demand can cause an economy to grow or shrink. Increases in demand funded by broadly spread savings that are ultimately recompensed – i.e. in form of a new matching of exchange relationships – create growth. Conversely, savings concentrated on certain products that lead to money saved being spent diffusely result in negative growth. In order to assess whether changes in state or state-influenced demand, technical innovations, shifts in society or wage adjustments are conducive to growth, the question has to be asked whether the integration of additional products into the budget is ultimately being encouraged. Government decisions, whether as a fiscal body or setter of standards, can influence the structure of demand and hence economic developments, strategically or unintentionally.Wachstum; Nachfrage; Nachfragestruktur; Fiskalpolitik; neoklassisch

Online Searching with an Autonomous Robot

We discuss online strategies for visibility-based searching for an object hidden behind a corner, using Kurt3D, a real autonomous mobile robot. This task is closely related to a number of well-studied problems. Our robot uses a three-dimensional laser scanner in a stop, scan, plan, go fashion for building a virtual three-dimensional environment. Besides planning trajectories and avoiding obstacles, Kurt3D is capable of identifying objects like a chair. We derive a practically useful and asymptotically optimal strategy that guarantees a competitive ratio of 2, which differs remarkably from the well-studied scenario without the need of stopping for surveying the environment. Our strategy is used by Kurt3D, documented in a separate video.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 12 photographs, 1 table, Latex, submitted for publicatio

A tight upper bound for the path length of AVL trees

AbstractWe prove that the internal path length of an AVL tree of size N is bounded from above by 1.4404N(log2 N-log2log2N)+O(N) and show that this bound is achieved by an infinite family of AVL trees, each tree of which is not of maximal height. These results carry over to the comparison cost of brother trees