arXiv subjects

Pankaj K. Agarwal

Publications and source records attributed to Pankaj K. Agarwal.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

BaCon: Efficient Batch Processing of Counting Queries [Full Version]

Counting queries are ubiquitous in database systems, particularly for driving internal system optimization. Learned models for cardinality estimation rely heavily on large-scale training data, yet generating such data by executing massive batches of counting queries is expensive. We propose BaCon, an efficient algorithm for batch evaluation of counting queries on top of a database system, without modifying its internals. BaCon integrates the idea of factorized databases with a workload-aware domain quantization strategy, allowing it to evaluate batches of counting queries using compact data structures rather than materializing massive join results. BaCon's design is compatible with most database management system, and we have implemented it as a client-side application on PostgreSQL with a lightweight C-language UDF (user-defined function). This implementation delivers speedups between 2$\times$ and 178$\times$ over baselines and good performance across various workloads, making training and maintenance of learned cardinality estimation models significantly more practical.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2026

Nearly-Tight Bounds for Vertical Decomposition in Three and Four Dimensions

Vertical decomposition is a widely used general technique for decomposing the cells of arrangements of semi-algebraic sets in ${\mathbb R}^d$ into constant-complexity subcells. In this paper, we settle in the affirmative a few long-standing open problems involving the vertical decomposition of substructures of arrangements for $d = 3, 4$. For example, we obtain sharp bounds on the complexity of the vertical decomposition of the complement of the union of a set of semi-algebraic regions of constant complexity in ${\mathbb R}^3$, and of the minimization diagram of a set of trivariate functions. These results lead to efficient algorithms for a variety of problems involving vertical decompositions, including algorithms for constructing the decompositions themselves and for constructing $(1/r)$-cuttings of substructures of arrangements. They also lead to a data structure for answering point-enclosure queries amid semi-algebraic sets in ${\mathbb R}^3$ and ${\mathbb R}^4$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Dynamic Nearest-Neighbor Searching Under General Metrics in ${\mathbb R}^3$ and Its Applications

Let $K$ be a compact, centrally-symmetric, strictly-convex region in ${\mathbb R}^3$, which is a semi-algebraic set of constant complexity, i.e. the unit ball of a corresponding metric, denoted as $\|\cdot\|_K$. Let ${\mathcal{K}}$ be a set of $n$ homothetic copies of $K$. This paper contains two main sets of results: (i) For a storage parameter $s\in[n,n^3]$, ${\mathcal{K}}$ can be preprocessed in $O^*(s)$ expected time into a data structure of size $O^*(s)$, so that for a query homothet $K_0$ of $K$, an intersection-detection query (determine whether $K_0$ intersects any member of ${\mathcal{K}}$, and if so, report such a member) or a nearest-neighbor query (return the member of ${\mathcal{K}}$ whose $\|\cdot\|_K$-distance from $K_0$ is smallest) can be answered in $O^*(n/s^{1/3})$ time; all $k$ homothets of ${\mathcal{K}}$ intersecting $K_0$ can be reported in additional $O(k)$ time. In addition, the data structure supports insertions/deletions in $O^*(s/n)$ amortized expected time per operation. Here the $O^*(\cdot)$ notation hides factors of the form $n^\varepsilon$, where $\varepsilon>0$ is an arbitrarily small constant, and the constant of proportionality depends on $\varepsilon$. (ii) Let $\mathcal{G}(\mathcal{K})$ denote the intersection graph of ${\mathcal{K}}$. Using the above data structure, breadth-first or depth-first search on $\mathcal{G}(\mathcal{K})$ can be performed in $O^*(n^{3/2})$ expected time. Combining this result with the so-called shrink-and-bifurcate technique, the reverse-shortest-path problem in a suitably defined proximity graph of ${\mathcal{K}}$ can be solved in $O^*(n^{62/39})$ expected time. Dijkstra's shortest-path algorithm, as well as Prim's MST algorithm, on a $\|\cdot\|_K$-proximity graph on $n$ points in ${\mathbb R}^3$, with edges weighted by $\|\cdot\|_K$, can also be performed in $O^*(n^{3/2})$ time.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2026

Optimal Motion Planning for Two Square Robots in a Rectilinear Environment

Let $\mathcal{W} \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a rectilinear polygonal environment (that is, a rectilinear polygon potentially with holes) with a total of $n$ vertices, and let $A,B$ be two robots, each modeled as an axis-aligned unit square, that can move rectilinearly inside $\mathcal{W}$. The goal is to compute a collision-free motion plan $\boldsymbolπ$, that is, a motion plan that continuously moves $A$ from $s_A$ to $t_A$ and $B$ from $s_B$ to $t_B$ so that $A$ and $B$ remain inside $\mathcal{W}$ and do not collide with each other during the motion. We study two variants of this problem which are focused additionally on the optimality of $\boldsymbolπ$, and obtain the following results. 1. Min-Sum: Here the goal is to compute a motion plan that minimizes the sum of the lengths of the paths of the robots. We present an $O(n^4\log{n})$-time algorithm for computing an optimal solution to the min-sum problem. This is the first polynomial-time algorithm to compute an optimal, collision-free motion of two robots amid obstacles in a planar polygonal environment. 2. Min-Makespan: Here the robots can move with at most unit speed, and the goal is to compute a motion plan that minimizes the maximum time taken by a robot to reach its target location. We prove that the min-makespan variant is NP-hard.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Near-Optimal Min-Sum Motion Planning in a Planar Polygonal Environment

Let $W \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a planar polygonal environment with $n$ vertices, and let $[k] = \{1,\ldots,k\}$ denote $k$ unit-square robots translating in $W$. Given source and target placements $s_1, t_1, \ldots, s_k, t_k \in W$ for each robot, we wish to compute a collision-free motion plan $\mathbfπ$, i.e., a coordinated motion for each robot $i$ along a continuous path from $s_i$ to $t_i$ so that robot $i$ does not leave $W$ or collide with any other $j$. Moreover, we additionally require that $\mathbfπ$ minimizes the sum of the path lengths; this variant is known as \textit{min-sum motion planning}. Even computing a feasible motion plan for $k$ unit-square robots in a polygonal environment is {\textsf PSPACE}-hard. For $r > 0$, let $opt(\mathbf{s},\mathbf{t}, r)$ denote the cost of a min-sum motion plan for $k$ square robots of radius $r$ each from $\mathbf{s}=(s_1,\ldots,s_k)$ to $\mathbf{t}=(t_1,\ldots,t_k)$. Given a parameter $ε> 0$, we present an algorithm for computing a coordinated motion plan for $k$ unit radius square robots of cost at most $(1+ε)opt(\mathbf{s},\mathbf{t}, 1+ε)+ε$, which improves to $(1+ε)opt(\mathbf{s},\mathbf{t}, 1+ε)$ if $opt(\mathbf{s},\mathbf{t}, 1+ε)\geq 1$, that runs in time $f(k,ε)n^{O(k)}$, where $f(k,ε) = (k/ε)^{O(k^2)}$. Our result is the first polynomial-time bicriteria $(1+ε)$-approximation algorithm for any optimal multi-robot motion planning problem amidst obstacles for a constant value of $k > 2$. The algorithm also works even if robots are modeled as $k$ congruent disks.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Fast Approximation Algorithms for Piercing Boxes by Points

$\newcommand{\popt}{\mathcal{p}} \newcommand{\Re}{\mathbb{R}}\newcommand{\N}{\mathcal{N}} \newcommand{\BX}{\mathcal{B}} \newcommand{\bb}{\mathsf{b}} \newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon} \newcommand{\polylog}{\mathrm{polylog}} $ Let $\mathcal{B}=\{\mathsf{b}_1, \ldots ,\mathsf{b}_n\}$ be a set of $n$ axis-aligned boxes in $\Re^d$ where $d\geq2$ is a constant. The \emph{piercing problem} is to compute a smallest set of points $\N \subset \Re^d$ that hits every box in $\mathcal{B}$, i.e., $\N\cap \mathsf{b}_i\neq \emptyset$, for $i=1,\ldots, n$. Let $\popt=\popt(\mathcal{B})$, the \emph{piercing number} be the minimum size of a piercing set of $\mathcal{B}$. We present a randomized $O(d^2\log\log \popt)$-approximation algorithm with expected running time $O(n^{d/2}\polylog n)$. Next, we present a faster $O(n^{\log d+1})$-time algorithm but with a slightly inferior approximation factor of $O(2^{4d}\log\log\popt)$. The running time of both algorithms can be improved to near-linear using a sampling-based technique, if $\popt = O(n^{1/d})$. For the dynamic version of the problem in the plane, we obtain a randomized $O(\log\log\popt)$-approximation algorithm with $O(n^{1/2}\polylog n )$ amortized expected update time for insertion or deletion of boxes. For squares in $\Re^2$, the update time can be improved to $O(n^{1/3}\polylog n )$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2025

Intersection Queries for Flat Semi-Algebraic Objects in Three Dimensions and Related Problems

Let $\mathcal{T}$ be a set of $n$ flat (planar) semi-algebraic regions in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of constant complexity (e.g., triangles, disks), which we call plates. We wish to preprocess $\mathcal{T}$ into a data structure so that for a query object $γ$, which is also a plate, we can quickly answer various intersection queries, such as detecting whether $γ$ intersects any plate of $\mathcal{T}$, reporting all the plates intersected by $γ$, or counting them. We also consider two simpler cases of this general setting: (i) the input objects are plates and the query objects are constant-degree parametrized algebraic arcs in $\mathbb{R}^3$ (arcs, for short), or (ii) the input objects are arcs and the query objects are plates in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Besides being interesting in their own right, the data structures for these two special cases form the building blocks for handling the general case. By combining the polynomial-partitioning technique with additional tools from real algebraic geometry, we present many different data structures for intersection queries, which also provide trade-offs between their size and query time. For example, if $\mathcal{T}$ is a set of plates and the query objects are algebraic arcs, we obtain a data structure that uses $O^*(n^{4/3})$ storage (where the $O^*(\cdot)$ notation hides factors of the form $n^ε$, for an arbitrarily small $ε>0$) and answers an arc-intersection query in $O^*(n^{2/3})$ time. This result is significant since the exponents do not depend on the specific shape of the input and query objects. We generalize and slightly improve this result: for a parameter $s\in [n^{4/3}, n^{t_q}]$, where ${t_q}\ge 3$ is the number of real parameters needed to specify a query arc, the query time can be decreased to $O^*((n/s^{1/{t_q}})^{\tfrac{2/3}{1-1/{t_q}}})$ by increasing the storage to $O^*(s)$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

Semi-Algebraic Off-line Range Searching and Biclique Partitions in the Plane

Let $P$ be a set of $m$ points in ${\mathbb R}^2$, let $Σ$ be a set of $n$ semi-algebraic sets of constant complexity in ${\mathbb R}^2$, let $(S,+)$ be a semigroup, and let $w: P \rightarrow S$ be a weight function on the points of $P$. We describe a randomized algorithm for computing $w(P\capσ)$ for every $σ\inΣ$ in overall expected time $O^*\bigl( m^{\frac{2s}{5s-4}}n^{\frac{5s-6}{5s-4}} + m^{2/3}n^{2/3} + m + n \bigr)$, where $s>0$ is a constant that bounds the maximum complexity of the regions of $Σ$, and where the $O^*(\cdot)$ notation hides subpolynomial factors. For $s\ge 3$, surprisingly, this bound is smaller than the best-known bound for answering $m$ such queries in an on-line manner. The latter takes $O^*(m^{\frac{s}{2s-1}}n^{\frac{2s-2}{2s-1}}+m+n)$ time. Let $Φ: Σ\times P \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ be the Boolean predicate (of constant complexity) such that $Φ(σ,p) = 1$ if $p\inσ$ and $0$ otherwise, and let $Σ\mathopΦ P = \{ (σ,p) \in Σ\times P \mid Φ(σ,p)=1\}$. Our algorithm actually computes a partition ${\mathcal B}_Φ$ of $Σ\mathopΦ P$ into bipartite cliques (bicliques) of size (i.e., sum of the sizes of the vertex sets of its bicliques) $O^*\bigl( m^{\frac{2s}{5s-4}}n^{\frac{5s-6}{5s-4}} + m^{2/3}n^{2/3} + m + n \bigr)$. It is straightforward to compute $w(P\capσ)$ for all $σ\in Σ$ from ${\mathcal B}_Φ$. Similarly, if $η: Σ\rightarrow S$ is a weight function on the regions of $Σ$, $\sum_{σ\in Σ: p \in σ} η(σ)$, for every point $p\in P$, can be computed from ${\mathcal B}_Φ$ in a straightforward manner. A recent work of Chan et al. solves the online version of this dual point enclosure problem within the same performance bound as our off-line solution. We also mention a few other applications of computing ${\mathcal B}_Φ$.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2024

PARQO: Penalty-Aware Robust Plan Selection in Query Optimization

The effectiveness of a query optimizer relies on the accuracy of selectivity estimates. The execution plan generated by the optimizer can be extremely poor in reality due to uncertainty in these estimates. This paper presents PARQO (Penalty-Aware Robust Plan Selection in Query Optimization), a novel system where users can define powerful robustness metrics that assess the expected penalty of a plan with respect to true optimal plans under uncertain selectivity estimates. PARQO uses workload-informed profiling to build error models, and employs principled sensitivity analysis techniques to identify human-interpretable selectivity dimensions with the largest impact on penalty. Experiments on three benchmarks demonstrate that PARQO finds robust, performant plans, and enables efficient and effective parametric optimization.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2024

On Reporting Durable Patterns in Temporal Proximity Graphs

Finding patterns in graphs is a fundamental problem in databases and data mining. In many applications, graphs are temporal and evolve over time, so we are interested in finding durable patterns, such as triangles and paths, which persist over a long time. While there has been work on finding durable simple patterns, existing algorithms do not have provable guarantees and run in strictly super-linear time. The paper leverages the observation that many graphs arising in practice are naturally proximity graphs or can be approximated as such, where nodes are embedded as points in some high-dimensional space, and two nodes are connected by an edge if they are close to each other. We work with an implicit representation of the proximity graph, where nodes are additionally annotated by time intervals, and design near-linear-time algorithms for finding (approximately) durable patterns above a given durability threshold. We also consider an interactive setting where a client experiments with different durability thresholds in a sequence of queries; we show how to compute incremental changes to result patterns efficiently in time near-linear to the size of the changes.

cs.DB↗

arXiv2024

Computing Data Distribution from Query Selectivities

We are given a set $\mathcal{Z}=\{(R_1,s_1),\ldots, (R_n,s_n)\}$, where each $R_i$ is a \emph{range} in $\Re^d$, such as rectangle or ball, and $s_i \in [0,1]$ denotes its \emph{selectivity}. The goal is to compute a small-size \emph{discrete data distribution} $\mathcal{D}=\{(q_1,w_1),\ldots, (q_m,w_m)\}$, where $q_j\in \Re^d$ and $w_j\in [0,1]$ for each $1\leq j\leq m$, and $\sum_{1\leq j\leq m}w_j= 1$, such that $\mathcal{D}$ is the most \emph{consistent} with $\mathcal{Z}$, i.e., $\mathrm{err}_p(\mathcal{D},\mathcal{Z})=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n\! \lvert{s_i-\sum_{j=1}^m w_j\cdot 1(q_j\in R_i)}\rvert^p$ is minimized. In a database setting, $\mathcal{Z}$ corresponds to a workload of range queries over some table, together with their observed selectivities (i.e., fraction of tuples returned), and $\mathcal{D}$ can be used as compact model for approximating the data distribution within the table without accessing the underlying contents. In this paper, we obtain both upper and lower bounds for this problem. In particular, we show that the problem of finding the best data distribution from selectivity queries is $\mathsf{NP}$-complete. On the positive side, we describe a Monte Carlo algorithm that constructs, in time $O((n+δ^{-d})δ^{-2}\mathop{\mathrm{polylog}})$, a discrete distribution $\tilde{\mathcal{D}}$ of size $O(δ^{-2})$, such that $\mathrm{err}_p(\tilde{\mathcal{D}},\mathcal{Z})\leq \min_{\mathcal{D}}\mathrm{err}_p(\mathcal{D},\mathcal{Z})+δ$ (for $p=1,2,\infty$) where the minimum is taken over all discrete distributions. We also establish conditional lower bounds, which strongly indicate the infeasibility of relative approximations as well as removal of the exponential dependency on the dimension for additive approximations. This suggests that significant improvements to our algorithm are unlikely.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

Fast and Accurate Approximations of the Optimal Transport in Semi-Discrete and Discrete Settings

Given a $d$-dimensional continuous (resp. discrete) probability distribution $μ$ and a discrete distribution $ν$, the semi-discrete (resp. discrete) Optimal Transport (OT) problem asks for computing a minimum-cost plan to transport mass from $μ$ to $ν$; we assume $n$ to be the size of the support of the discrete distributions, and we assume we have access to an oracle outputting the mass of $μ$ inside a constant-complexity region in $O(1)$ time. In this paper, we present three approximation algorithms for the OT problem. (i) Semi-discrete additive approximation: For any $ε>0$, we present an algorithm that computes a semi-discrete transport plan with $ε$-additive error in $n^{O(d)}\log\frac{C_{\max}}ε$ time; here, $C_{\max}$ is the diameter of the supports of $μ$ and $ν$. (ii) Semi-discrete relative approximation: For any $ε>0$, we present an algorithm that computes a $(1+ε)$-approximate semi-discrete transport plan in $nε^{-O(d)}\log(n)\log^{O(d)}(\log n)$ time; here, we assume the ground distance is any $L_p$ norm. (iii) Discrete relative approximation: For any $ε>0$, we present a Monte-Carlo $(1+ε)$-approximation algorithm that computes a transport plan under any $L_p$ norm in $nε^{-O(d)}\log(n)\log^{O(d)}(\log n)$ time; here, we assume that the spread of the supports of $μ$ and $ν$ is polynomially bounded.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Vertical Decomposition in 3D and 4D with Applications to Line Nearest-Neighbor Searching in 3D

Vertical decomposition is a widely used general technique for decomposing the cells of arrangements of semi-algebraic sets in $d$-space into constant-complexity subcells. In this paper, we settle in the affirmative a few long-standing open problems involving the vertical decomposition of substructures of arrangements for $d=3,4$: (i) Let $\mathcal{S}$ be a collection of $n$ semi-algebraic sets of constant complexity in 3D, and let $U(m)$ be an upper bound on the complexity of the union $\mathcal{U}(\mathcal{S}')$ of any subset $\mathcal{S}'\subseteq \mathcal{S}$ of size at most $m$. We prove that the complexity of the vertical decomposition of the complement of $\mathcal{U}(\mathcal{S})$ is $O^*(n^2+U(n))$ (where the $O^*(\cdot)$ notation hides subpolynomial factors). We also show that the complexity of the vertical decomposition of the entire arrangement $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{S})$ is $O^*(n^2+X)$, where $X$ is the number of vertices in $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{S})$. (ii) Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a collection of $n$ trivariate functions whose graphs are semi-algebraic sets of constant complexity. We show that the complexity of the vertical decomposition of the portion of the arrangement $\mathcal{A}(\mathcal{F})$ in 4D lying below the lower envelope of $\mathcal{F}$ is $O^*(n^3)$. These results lead to efficient algorithms for a variety of problems involving these decompositions, including algorithms for constructing the decompositions themselves, and for constructing $(1/r)$-cuttings of substructures of arrangements of the kinds considered above. One additional algorithm of interest is for output-sensitive point enclosure queries amid semi-algebraic sets in three or four dimensions. In addition, as a main domain of applications, we study various proximity problems involving points and lines in 3D.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Near-Optimal Min-Sum Motion Planning for Two Square Robots in a Polygonal Environment

Let $\mathcal{W} \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a planar polygonal environment (i.e., a polygon potentially with holes) with a total of $n$ vertices, and let $A,B$ be two robots, each modeled as an axis-aligned unit square, that can translate inside $\mathcal{W}$. Given source and target placements $s_A,t_A,s_B,t_B \in \mathcal{W}$ of $A$ and $B$, respectively, the goal is to compute a \emph{collision-free motion plan} $\mathbfπ^*$, i.e., a motion plan that continuously moves $A$ from $s_A$ to $t_A$ and $B$ from $s_B$ to $t_B$ so that $A$ and $B$ remain inside $\mathcal{W}$ and do not collide with each other during the motion. Furthermore, if such a plan exists, then we wish to return a plan that minimizes the sum of the lengths of the paths traversed by the robots, $\left|\mathbfπ^*\right|$. Given $\mathcal{W}, s_A,t_A,s_B,t_B$ and a parameter $\varepsilon > 0$, we present an $n^2\varepsilon^{-O(1)} \log n$-time $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for this problem. We are not aware of any polynomial time algorithm for this problem, nor do we know whether the problem is NP-Hard. Our result is the first polynomial-time $(1+\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm for an optimal motion planning problem involving two robots moving in a polygonal environment.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Maintaining the Union of Unit Discs under Insertions with Near-Optimal Overhead

We present efficient dynamic data structures for maintaining the union of unit discs and the lower envelope of pseudo-lines in the plane. More precisely, we present three main results in this paper: (i) We present a linear-size data structure to maintain the union of a set of unit discs under insertions. It can insert a disc and update the union in $O((k+1) \log^2 n)$ time, where $n$ is the current number of unit discs and $k$ is the combinatorial complexity of the structural change in the union due to the insertion of the new disc. It can also compute, within the same time bound, the area of the union after the insertion of each disc. (ii) We propose a linear-size data structure for maintaining the lower envelope of a set of $x$-monotone pseudo-lines. It can handle insertion/deletion of a pseudo-line in $O(\log^2 n)$ time; for a query point $x_0\in\mathbb{R}$, it can report, in $O(\log n)$ time, the point on the lower envelope with $x$-coordinate $x_0$; and for a query point $q\in\mathbb{R}^2$, it can return all $k$ pseudo-lines lying below $q$ in time $O(\log n+k\log^2 n)$. (iii) We present a linear-size data structure for storing a set of circular arcs of unit radius (not necessarily on the boundary of the union of the corresponding discs), so that for a query unit disc $D$, all input arcs intersecting $D$ can be reported in $O(n^{1/2+\varepsilon} + k)$ time, where $k$ is the output size and $\varepsilon > 0$ is an arbitrarily small constant. A unit-circle arc can be inserted or deleted in $O(\log^2 n)$ time.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Multi-Robot Motion Planning for Unit Discs with Revolving Areas

We study the problem of motion planning for a collection of $n$ labeled unit disc robots in a polygonal environment. We assume that the robots have revolving areas around their start and final positions: that each start and each final is contained in a radius $2$ disc lying in the free space, not necessarily concentric with the start or final position, which is free from other start or final positions. This assumption allows a weakly-monotone motion plan, in which robots move according to an ordering as follows: during the turn of a robot $R$ in the ordering, it moves fully from its start to final position, while other robots do not leave their revolving areas. As $R$ passes through a revolving area, a robot $R'$ that is inside this area may move within the revolving area to avoid a collision. Notwithstanding the existence of a motion plan, we show that minimizing the total traveled distance in this setting, specifically even when the motion plan is restricted to be weakly-monotone, is APX-hard, ruling out any polynomial-time $(1+ε)$-approximation algorithm. On the positive side, we present the first constant-factor approximation algorithm for computing a feasible weakly-monotone motion plan. The total distance traveled by the robots is within an $O(1)$ factor of that of the optimal motion plan, which need not be weakly monotone. Our algorithm extends to an online setting in which the polygonal environment is fixed but the initial and final positions of robots are specified in an online manner. Finally, we observe that the overhead in the overall cost that we add while editing the paths to avoid robot-robot collision can vary significantly depending on the ordering we chose. Finding the best ordering in this respect is known to be NP-hard, and we provide a polynomial time $O(\log n \log \log n)$-approximation algorithm for this problem.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

On Two-Handed Planar Assembly Partitioning with Connectivity Constraints

Assembly planning is a fundamental problem in robotics and automation, which involves designing a sequence of motions to bring the separate constituent parts of a product into their final placement in the product. Assembly planning is naturally cast as a disassembly problem, giving rise to the assembly partitioning problem: Given a set $A$ of parts, find a subset $S\subset A$, referred to as a subassembly, such that $S$ can be rigidly translated to infinity along a prescribed direction without colliding with $A\setminus S$. While assembly partitioning is efficiently solvable, it is further desirable for the parts of a subassembly to be easily held together. This motivates the problem that we study, called connected-assembly-partitioning, which additionally requires each of the two subassemblies, $S$ and $A\setminus S$, to be connected. We show that this problem is NP-complete, settling an open question posed by Wilson et al. (1995) a quarter of a century ago, even when $A$ consists of unit-grid squares (i.e., $A$ is polyomino-shaped). Towards this result, we prove the NP-hardness of a new Planar 3-SAT variant having an adjacency requirement for variables appearing in the same clause, which may be of independent interest. On the positive side, we give an $O(2^k n^2)$-time fixed-parameter tractable algorithm (requiring low degree polynomial-time pre-processing) for an assembly $A$ consisting of polygons in the plane, where $n=|A|$ and $k=|S|$. We also describe a special case of unit-grid square assemblies, where a connected partition can always be found in $O(n)$-time.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2023

Computing Optimal Kernels in Two Dimensions

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in $\Re^2$. For a parameter $\varepsilon\in (0,1)$, a subset $C\subseteq P$ is an \emph{$\varepsilon$-kernel} of $P$ if the projection of the convex hull of $C$ approximates that of $P$ within $(1-\varepsilon)$-factor in every direction. The set $C$ is a \emph{weak $\varepsilon$-kernel} of $P$ if its directional width approximates that of $P$ in every direction. Let $\mathsf{k}_{\varepsilon}(P)$ (resp.\ $\mathsf{k}^{\mathsf{w}}_{\varepsilon}(P)$) denote the minimum-size of an $\varepsilon$-kernel (resp. weak $\varepsilon$-kernel) of $P$. We present an $O(n\mathsf{k}_{\varepsilon}(P)\log n)$-time algorithm for computing an $\varepsilon$-kernel of $P$ of size $\mathsf{k}_{\varepsilon}(P)$, and an $O(n^2\log n)$-time algorithm for computing a weak $\varepsilon$-kernel of $P$ of size ${\mathsf{k}}^{\mathsf{w}}_{\varepsilon}(P)$. We also present a fast algorithm for the Hausdorff variant of this problem. In addition, we introduce the notion of \emph{$\varepsilon$-core}, a convex polygon lying inside $\mathsf{ch}(P)$, prove that it is a good approximation of the optimal $\varepsilon$-kernel, present an efficient algorithm for computing it, and use it to compute an $\varepsilon$-kernel of small size.

cs.CG↗