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Shortest Paths in a Cuboidal World

Authors: Fajie Li; Reinhard Klette;

Shortest Paths in a Cuboidal World

Abstract

Since 1987 it is known that the Euclidean shortest path problem is NP-hard. However, if the 3D world is subdivided into cubes, all of the same size, defining obstacles or possible spaces to move in, then the Euclidean shortest path problem has a linear-time solution, if all spaces to move in form a simple cube-curve. The shortest path through a simple cube-curve in the orthogonal 3D grid is a minimum-length polygonal curve (MLP for short). So far only one general and linear (only with respect to measured run times) algorithm, called the rubberband algorithm, was known for an approximative calculation of an MLP. The algorithm is basically defined by moves of vertices along critical edges (i.e., edges in three cubes of the given cube-curve). A proof, that this algorithm always converges to the correct MLP, and if so, then always (provable) in linear time, was still an open problem so far (the authors had successfully treated only a very special case of simple cube-curves before). In a previous paper, the authors also showed that the original rubberband algorithm required a (minor) correction. This paper finally answers the open problem: by a further modification of the corrected rubberband algorithm, it turns into a provable linear-time algorithm for calculating the MLP of any simple cube-curve. The paper also presents an alternative provable linear-time algorithm for the same task, which is based on moving vertices within faces of cubes. For a disticntion, we call the modified original algorithm now the edge-based rubberband algorithm, and the second algorithm is the face-based rubberband algorithm; the time complexity of both is in ${\cal O}(m)$, where m is the number of critical edges of the given simple cube-curve.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
3
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