Optimizing Visibility-Based Search in Polygonal Domains

Authors Kien C. Huynh , Joseph S. B. Mitchell , Linh Nguyen , Valentin Polishchuk



PDF
Thumbnail PDF

File

LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.27.pdf
  • Filesize: 0.99 MB
  • 16 pages

Document Identifiers

Author Details

Kien C. Huynh
  • Linköping University, Sweden
Joseph S. B. Mitchell
  • Stony Brook University, NY, USA
Linh Nguyen
  • Stony Brook University, NY, USA
Valentin Polishchuk
  • Linköping University, Sweden

Cite AsGet BibTex

Kien C. Huynh, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, Linh Nguyen, and Valentin Polishchuk. Optimizing Visibility-Based Search in Polygonal Domains. In 19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 294, pp. 27:1-27:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)
https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.27

Abstract

Given a geometric domain P, visibility-based search problems seek routes for one or more mobile agents ("watchmen") to move within P in order to be able to see a portion (or all) of P, while optimizing objectives, such as the length(s) of the route(s), the size (e.g., area or volume) of the portion seen, the probability of detecting a target distributed within P according to a prior distribution, etc. The classic watchman route problem seeks a shortest route for an observer, with omnidirectional vision, to see all of P. In this paper we study bicriteria optimization problems for a single mobile agent within a polygonal domain P in the plane, with the criteria of route length and area seen. Specifically, we address the problem of computing a minimum length route that sees at least a specified area of P (minimum length, for a given area quota). We also study the problem of computing a length-constrained route that sees as much area as possible. We provide hardness results and approximation algorithms. In particular, for a simple polygon P we provide the first fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for the problem of computing a shortest route seeing an area quota, as well as a (slightly more efficient) polynomial dual approximation. We also consider polygonal domains P (with holes) and the special case of a planar domain consisting of a union of lines. Our results yield the first approximation algorithms for computing a time-optimal search route in P to guarantee some specified probability of detection of a static target within P, randomly distributed in P according to a given prior distribution.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Computational geometry
Keywords
  • Quota watchman route problem
  • budgeted watchman route problem
  • visibility-based search
  • approximation

Metrics

  • Access Statistics
  • Total Accesses (updated on a weekly basis)
    0
    PDF Downloads

References

  1. Esther M. Arkin, Alon Efrat, Christian Knauer, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, Valentin Polishchuk, Günter Rote, Lena Schlipf, and Topi Talvitie. Shortest path to a segment and quickest visibility queries. Journal of Computational Geometry, 7(2):77-100, 2016. Google Scholar
  2. Efim M. Bronshteyn and L. D. Ivanov. The approximation of convex sets by polyhedra. Siberian Mathematical Journal, 16(5):852-853, 1975. Google Scholar
  3. Kevin Buchin, Valentin Polishchuk, Leonid Sedov, and Roman Voronov. Geometric secluded paths and planar satisfiability. In 36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020). Schloss Dagstuhl-Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik, 2020. Google Scholar
  4. John Canny. The Complexity of Robot Motion Planning. MIT press, 1988. Google Scholar
  5. Svante Carlsson, Håkan Jonsson, and Bengt J. Nilsson. Finding the shortest watchman route in a simple polygon. Discrete & Computational Geometry, 22:377-402, 1999. Google Scholar
  6. Bernard Chazelle. Triangulating a simple polygon in linear time. Discrete & Computational Geometry, 6(3):485-524, 1991. Google Scholar
  7. Chandra Chekuri and Martin Pal. A recursive greedy algorithm for walks in directed graphs. In 46th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS'05), pages 245-253. IEEE, 2005. Google Scholar
  8. Ke Chen and Sariel Har-Peled. The Euclidean orienteering problem revisited. SIAM Journal on Computing, 38(1):385-397, 2008. Google Scholar
  9. Otfried Cheong, Alon Efrat, and Sariel Har-Peled. Finding a guard that sees most and a shop that sells most. Discrete & Computational Geometry, 37:545-563, 2007. Google Scholar
  10. Wei-Pang Chin and Simeon Ntafos. Optimum watchman routes. In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, pages 24-33, 1986. Google Scholar
  11. Wei-Pang Chin and Simeon Ntafos. Shortest watchman routes in simple polygons. Discrete & Computational Geometry, 6(1):9-31, 1991. Google Scholar
  12. Timothy H. Chung, Geoffrey A. Hollinger, and Volkan Isler. Search and pursuit-evasion in mobile robotics: A survey. Autonomous Robots, 31:299-316, 2011. Google Scholar
  13. Moshe Dror, Alon Efrat, Anna Lubiw, and Joseph S. B. Mitchell. Touring a sequence of polygons. In Proceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, pages 473-482, 2003. Google Scholar
  14. Richard M. Dudley. Metric entropy of some classes of sets with differentiable boundaries. Journal of Approximation Theory, 10(3):227-236, 1974. Google Scholar
  15. Adrian Dumitrescu, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, and Paweł Żyliński. The minimum guarding tree problem. Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and Applications, 6(01):1450011, 2014. Google Scholar
  16. Adrian Dumitrescu, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, and Paweł Żyliński. Watchman routes for lines and line segments. Computational Geometry, 47(4):527-538, 2014. Google Scholar
  17. Adrian Dumitrescu and Csaba D. Tóth. Watchman tours for polygons with holes. Computational Geometry, 45(7):326-333, 2012. Google Scholar
  18. James N. Eagle. The optimal search for a moving target when the search path is constrained. Operations Research, 32(5):1107-1115, 1984. Google Scholar
  19. James N. Eagle and James R. Yee. An optimal branch-and-bound procedure for the constrained path, moving target search problem. Operations Research, 38(1):110-114, 1990. Google Scholar
  20. Lee-Ad Gottlieb, Robert Krauthgamer, and Havana Rika. Faster algorithms for orienteering and k-tsp. Theoretical Computer Science, 914:73-83, 2022. Google Scholar
  21. Leonidas Guibas, John Hershberger, Daniel Leven, Micha Sharir, and Robert Tarjan. Linear time algorithms for visibility and shortest path problems inside simple polygons. In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Symposium on Computational Geometry, pages 1-13, 1986. Google Scholar
  22. Leonidas J. Guibas, Jean-Claude Latombe, Steven M. LaValle, David Lin, and Rajeev Motwani. Visibility-based pursuit-evasion in a polygonal environment. In Algorithms and Data Structures: 5th International Workshop, WADS'97 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada August 6-8, 1997 Proceedings 5, pages 17-30. Springer, 1997. Google Scholar
  23. Sariel Har-Peled and Mitchell Jones. Proof of Dudley’s convex approximation. arXiv preprint, 2019. URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.01977.
  24. Joseph S. B. Mitchell. Geometric shortest paths and network optimization. Handbook of Computational Geometry, 334:633-702, 2000. Google Scholar
  25. Joseph S. B. Mitchell. Approximating watchman routes. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, pages 844-855, 2013. Google Scholar
  26. Simeon Ntafos and Markos Tsoukalas. Optimum placement of guards. Information Sciences, 76(1-2):141-150, 1994. Google Scholar
  27. Joseph O’Rourke. Visibility. In Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry, pages 875-896. Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2017. Google Scholar
  28. Michael Ian Shamos. Computational Geometry. Yale University, 1978. Google Scholar
  29. Xuehou Tan. Fast computation of shortest watchman routes in simple polygons. Information Processing Letters, 77(1):27-33, 2001. Google Scholar
  30. Xuehou Tan, Tomio Hirata, and Yasuyoshi Inagaki. Corrigendum to "an incremental algorithm for constructing shortest watchman routes". International Journal of Computational Geometry & Applications, 9(03):319-323, 1999. Google Scholar
  31. K. E. Trummel and J. R. Weisinger. The complexity of the optimal searcher path problem. Operations Research, 34(2):324-327, 1986. Google Scholar