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Optimal covering tours with turn costs

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

We give the first algorithmic study of a class of "covering tour" problems related to the geometric Traveling Salesman Problem: Find a polygonal tour for a cutter so that it sweeps out a specified region ("pocket"), in order to minimize a cost that depends not only on the length of the tour but also on the number of turns. These problems arise naturally in manufacturing applications of computational geometry to automatic tool path generation and automatic inspection systems, as well as arc routing ("postman") problems with turn penalties. We prove lower bounds (NP-completeness of minimum-turn milling) and give efficient approximation algorithms for several natural versions of the problem, including a polynomial-time approximation scheme based on a novel adaptation of the m-guillotine method.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 12th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms
Pages138-147
Number of pages10
StatePublished - 2001
Event2001 Operating Section Proceedings, American Gas Association - Dallas, TX, United States
Duration: Apr 30 2001May 1 2001

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms

Conference

Conference2001 Operating Section Proceedings, American Gas Association
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDallas, TX
Period04/30/0105/1/01

Keywords

  • Approximation algorithms
  • Covering
  • Lawn mowing
  • M-guillotine subdivisions
  • Manufacturing
  • Milling
  • NC machining
  • NP-completeness
  • Polynomial-time approximation scheme (PTAS)
  • Traveling salesman problem (TSP)
  • Turn costs

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