基于规则的最短路径查询算法

最短路径查询是图数据管理中非常重要的一类问题.研究了基于规则的最短路径查询,它是一类特殊的最短路径查询问题.给定起点和终点,基于规则的最短路径查询是指找到一条从起点到终点的最短路径,使得此路径经过用户指定点集中的所有点,并且某些点的访问顺序满足一定的偏序规则.该问题被证明是一个NP-hard问题.目前已有的工作侧重于空间数据集（两点之间的最短距离用欧氏距离表示）上基于规则的最短路径问题,它采用穷举的方式列出所有满足规则的路径,然后选择长度最小的路径作为问题的解.然而在实际的道路交通网中,两点之间的距离等于两点之间的最短路径的长度,它往往大于两点之间的欧氏距离;此外,采用穷举的方式会造成大量重复的计算.因此,设计了一种前向搜索算法以及一些优化技术来求解该问题.最后,在不同的真实数据集上设计了大量的实验来验证算法的有效性.实验结果表明,该算法可以快速给出问题的解,而且算法的效率在很大程度上超过了现有的算法.     

改进双向蚁群算法的移动机器人路径规划

针对机器人在静态环境下全局路径规划存在无法找到最短路径,收敛速度慢,路径搜索盲目性大,拐点多等问题,提出一种改进双向蚁群算法。以栅格地图为机器人运行环境,对障碍物有效顶点进行定义、编码和运用,同时结合以相同障碍物有效顶点为相遇条件的双向蚁群算法,双向交替进行路径搜索,能够快速地找到更短路径,得到的路径拐点更少。引入改进的状态转移规则,能够加快搜索速度。在启发函数中引入可调常数因子,在以障碍物有效顶点为路径搜索的节点,每走一步相当于传统算法的一步或多步行走。动态调整挥发系数并设置信息素浓度范围,能够避免陷入早熟。通过与其他算法仿真对比,验证了改进算法的可行性、有效性和优越性。     

The corridor map method: a general framework for real‐time high‐quality path planning

In many virtual environment applications, paths have to be planned for characters to traverse from a start to a goal position in the virtual world while avoiding obstacles. Contemporary applications require a path planner that is fast (to ensure real‐time interaction with the environment) and flexible (to avoid local hazards such as small and dynamic obstacles). In addition, paths need to be smooth and short to ensure natural looking motions. Current path planning techniques do not obey these criteria simultaneously. For example, A* approaches generate unnatural looking paths, potential field‐based methods are too slow, and sampling‐based path planning techniques are inflexible. We propose a new technique, the Corridor Map Method (CMM), which satisfies all the criteria. In an off‐line construction phase, the CMM creates a system of collision‐free corridors for the static obstacles in an environment. In the query phase, paths can be planned inside the corridors for different types of characters while avoiding dynamic obstacles. Experiments show that high‐quality paths for single characters or groups of characters can be obtained in real‐time. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Planning of collision-free paths for a reconfigurable dual manipulator equipped mobile robot

In this paper, we study the problem of finding a collision-free path for a mobile robot which possesses manipulators. The task of the robot is to carry a polygonal object from a starting point to a destination point in a possibly culttered environment. In most of the existing research on robot path planning, a mobile robot is approximated by a fixed shape, i.e., a circle or a polygon. In our task planner, the robot is allowed to change configurations for avoiding collision. This path planner operates using two algorithms: the collision-free feasible configuration finding algorithm and the collision-free path finding algorithm. The collision-free feasible configuration finding algorithm finds all collision-free feasible configurations for the robot when the position of the carried object is given. The collision-free path finding algorithm generates some candidate paths first and then uses a graph search method to find a collision-free path from all the collision-free feasible configurations along the candidate paths. The proposed algorithms can deal with a cluttered environment and is guaranteed to find a solution if one exists.     

Learning automata based multi‐agent system algorithms for finding optimal policies in Markov games

Markov games, as the generalization of Markov decision processes to the multi‐agent case, have long been used for modeling multi‐agent systems (MAS). The Markov game view of MAS is considered as a sequence of games having to be played by multiple players while each game belongs to a different state of the environment. In this paper, several learning automata based multi‐agent system algorithms for finding optimal policies in Markov games are proposed. In all of the proposed algorithms, each agent residing in every state of the environment is equipped with a learning automaton. Every joint‐action of the set of learning automata in each state corresponds to moving to one of the adjacent states. Each agent moves from one state to another and tries to reach the goal state. The actions taken by learning automata along the path traversed by the agent are then rewarded or penalized based on the comparison of the average reward received by agent per move along the path with a dynamic threshold. In the second group of the proposed algorithms, the concept of entropy has been imported into learning automata based multi‐agent systems to improve the performance of the algorithms. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms, computer experiments have been conducted. The results of experiments have shown that the proposed algorithms perform better than the existing algorithms in terms of speed and accuracy of reaching the optimal policy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Applying Visual Analytics to Physically Based Rendering

Physically based rendering is a well‐understood technique to produce realistic‐looking images. However, different algorithms exist for efficiency reasons, which work well in certain cases but fail or produce rendering artefacts in others. Few tools allow a user to gain insight into the algorithmic processes. In this work, we present such a tool, which combines techniques from information visualization and visual analytics with physically based rendering. It consists of an interactive parallel coordinates plot, with a built‐in sampling‐based data reduction technique to visualize the attributes associated with each light sample. Two‐dimensional (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) heat maps depict any desired property of the rendering process. An interactively rendered 3D view of the scene displays animated light paths based on the user's selection to gain further insight into the rendering process. The provided interactivity enables the user to guide the rendering process for more efficiency. To show its usefulness, we present several applications based on our tool. This includes differential light transport visualization to optimize light setup in a scene, finding the causes of and resolving rendering artefacts, such as fireflies, as well as a path length contribution histogram to evaluate the efficiency of different Monte Carlo estimators.     

Space‐time planning in changing environments : using dynamic objects for accessibility

Navigation is a critical task for agents populating virtual worlds. In the last years, numerous solutions have been proposed to solve the path planning problem in order to enhance the autonomy of virtual agents. Those solutions mainly focused on static environments, eventually populated with dynamic obstacles. However, dynamic objects are usually more than just obstacles as they can be used by an agent to reach new locations. In this paper, we propose an online path planning algorithm in dynamically changing environments with unknown evolution such as physically based‐environments. Our method represents objects in terms of obstacles but also in terms of navigable surfaces. This representation allows our algorithm to find temporal paths through disconnected and moving platforms. We will also show that the proposed method also enables several kinds of adaptations such as avoiding moving obstacles or adapting the agent postures to environmental constraints. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A linear algorithm for the number of degree constrained subforests of a tree

Recent work of Farrell is concerned with determining the total number of ways in which one can cover the vertices of a tree T with vertex disjoint paths. Such path covers are spanning subforests in which each vertex is restricted to have degree at most two. If b: V(T)→N is a positive integer-valued function, then finding a b-matching is equivalent to finding a spanning subgraph in which the degree of each vertex v is at most b(v). A linear-time algorithm for determining the number of b-matching in a tree is presented.     

一种新的路径编码机制在移动机器人路径规划中的应用

针对基于遗传算法的移动机器人路径规划,本文提出了一种新的定长十进制路径 编码机制．首先,将移动机器人所处环境中的障碍物表示成多边形的形式,并对各障碍物顶 点用十进制进行任意编号,然后将移动机器人的路径编码成定长为所有障碍物顶点个数之和 的十进制染色体串．串中,非零位上的十进制值表示路径经过了相应编号的顶点,各顶点在 串中的顺序就是它们在路径中的顺序．此编码方式克服了已有的变长编码机制及定长二进制 编码机制需特殊遗传操作算子和特殊解码的缺陷,使得算法更加简单有效．     

A GRASP with path‐relinking and restarts heuristic for the prize‐collecting generalized minimum spanning tree problem

Given a graph with its vertex set partitioned into a set of groups, nonnegative costs associated to its edges, and nonnegative prizes associated to its vertices, the prize‐collecting generalized minimum spanning tree problem consists in finding a subtree of this graph that spans exactly one vertex of each group and minimizes the sum of the costs of the edges of the tree less the prizes of the selected vertices. It is a generalization of the NP‐hard generalized minimum spanning tree optimization problem. We propose a GRASP (greedy randomized adaptive search procedure) heuristic for its approximate solution, incorporating path‐relinking for search intensification and a restart strategy for search diversification. The hybridization of the GRASP with path‐relinking and restarts heuristic with a data mining strategy that is applied along with the GRASP iterations, after the elite set is modified and becomes stable, contributes to making the heuristic more robust. The computational experiments show that the heuristic developed in this work found very good solutions for test problems with up to 439 vertices. All input data for the test instances and detailed numerical results are made available from Mendeley Data.     

Parallel Mesh Algorithms for Grid Graph Shortest Paths with Application to Separation of Touching Chromosomes

The grid graph shortest path problem has many applications. In this paper, we present practical mesh algorithms using a local cost-reducing operation for various forms of the grid graph shortest path problem. The algorithms are very simple and can easily mark the vertices on shortest paths between any two vertices. The time complexity of the algorithm is proportional to the maximum length of the shortest paths with a very small multiplicative constant. Also in this paper, we discuss the application of the parallel algorithms in automatic chromosome analysis to intelligently split touching chromosomes. We identify local features useful for finding a potential path to separate touching chromosomes. We then define a distance measure based on the local features and find the best splitting path to cut touching chromosomes. The splitting algorithm only uses local information and is highly parallel.     

无回路网络中最短路问题的高效算法

无回路网络是一类重要的网络,给出在无回路网络中求解最短路树形图和任意顶点对间最短路的高效算法。该算法将顶点进行重新编号,结合广度优先探索法,从源顶点出发依次搜索每个顶点的所有出弧,并在弧的头部进行权值变换操作,可以得到最短路树形图和任意顶点对间最短路,算法复杂度分别为O(m)和O(m(n-m1/2))。该算法思想简便、复杂度低、易于操作。 关键词：     

Isometric-path numbers of block graphs

An isometric path between two vertices in a graph G is a shortest path joining them. The isometric-path number of G, denoted by ip(G), is the minimum number of isometric paths required to cover all vertices of G. In this paper, we determine exact values of isometric-path numbers of block graphs. We also give a linear-time algorithm for finding the corresponding paths.     

Planning approaches to constraint‐aware navigation in dynamic environments

Path planning is a fundamental problem in many areas, ranging from robotics and artificial intelligence to computer graphics and animation. Although there is extensive literature for computing optimal, collision‐free paths, there is relatively little work that explores the satisfaction of spatial constraints between objects and agents at the global navigation layer. This paper presents a planning framework that satisfies multiple spatial constraints imposed on the path. The type of constraints specified can include staying behind a building, walking along walls, or avoiding the line of sight of patrolling agents. We introduce two hybrid environment representations that balance computational efficiency and search space density to provide a minimal, yet sufficient, discretization of the search graph for constraint‐aware navigation. An extended anytime dynamic planner is used to compute constraint‐aware paths, while efficiently repairing solutions to account for varying dynamic constraints or an updating world model. We demonstrate the benefits of our method on challenging navigation problems in complex environments for dynamic agents using combinations of hard and soft, attracting and repelling constraints, defined by both static obstacles and moving obstacles. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vertex covering by paths on trees with its applications in machine translation

Given a tree and a set of paths in the tree, the problem of finding a minimum number of paths from the given path set to cover all the vertices in the tree is investigated in the paper. To distinguish from the classical path cover problem, such an optimization problem is referred to as vertex covering by paths. The problem and its edge variant, edge covering by paths, find applications in machine translation. Complexity and algorithmic results are presented for the problem and its edge variant.     

Coordinated Crowd Simulation With Topological Scene Analysis

This paper proposes a new algorithm to produce globally coordinated crowds in an environment with multiple paths and obstacles. Simple greedy crowd control methods easily lead to congestion at bottlenecks within scenes, as the characters do not cooperate with one another. In computer animation, this problem degrades crowd quality especially when ordered behaviour is needed, such as soldiers marching towards a castle. Similarly, in applications such as real‐time strategy games, this often causes player frustration, as the crowd will not move as efficiently as it should. Also, planning of building would usually require visualization of ordered evacuation to maximize the flow. Planning such globally coordinated crowd movement is usually labour intensive. Here, we propose a simple solution that is easy to use and efficient in computation. First, we compute the harmonic field of the environment, taking into account the starting points, goals and obstacles. Based on the field, we represent the topology of the environment using a Reeb Graph, and calculate the maximum capacity for each path in the graph. With the harmonic field and the Reeb Graph, path planning of crowd can be performed using a lightweight algorithm, such that any blocking of one another's paths is minimized. Comparing to previous methods, our system can synthesize globally coordinated crowd with smooth and efficient movement. It also enables control of the crowd with high‐level parameters such as the degree of cooperation and congestion. Finally, the method is scalable to thousands of characters with minimal impact to computation time. It is best applied in interactive crowd synthesis systems such as animation designs and real‐time strategy games.     

密集障碍物环境下移动机器人全局路径规划

针对粒子群优化算法用于障碍物密集分布环境下机器人全局路径规划存在的早熟、效率低等问题,提出了一种基于障碍物顶点信息搜索的双层(底层和顶层)粒子群优化算法。首先,循环运行若干次底层算法,快速获取若干条无碰路径,确定全局最优解的大致位置,并上传所得路径到顶层;顶层种群接受下层信息后,接着,进行局部精细搜索,以获取问题的最优解。同时,定义了基于障碍物顶点信息的脱障算子,对粒子的全局极值点进行脱障操作,以保证路径的无碰性且加快寻优效率。最后,仿真验证了该方法的有效性。     

Real‐time density‐based crowd simulation

Virtual characters in games and simulations often need to plan visually convincing paths through a crowded environment. This paper describes how crowd density information can be used to guide a large number of characters through a crowded environment. Crowd density information helps characters avoid congested routes that could lead to traffic jams. It also encourages characters to use a wide variety of routes to reach their destination. Our technique measures the desirability of a route by combining distance information with crowd density information. We start by building a navigation mesh for the walkable regions in a polygonal two‐dimensional (2‐D) or multilayered three‐dimensional (3‐D) environment. The skeleton of this navigation mesh is the medial axis. Each walkable region in the navigation mesh maintains an up‐to‐date density value. This density value is equal to the area occupied by all the characters inside a given region divided by the total area of this region. These density values are mapped onto the medial axis to form a weighted graph. An A^* search on this graph yields a backbone path for each character, and forces are used to guide the characters through the weighted environment. The characters periodically replan their routes as the density values are updated. Our experiments show that we can compute congestion‐avoiding paths for tens of thousands of characters in real‐time. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Empirical Comparison of Search Approaches for Moving Agents

This study empirically compares existing search approaches used for path planning of moving agents, namely, incremental and real‐time search approaches. The comparisons are performed in both stationary and moving target search problems separately. In each problem domain, well‐known representatives of both approaches are evaluated in partially observable environments where the agent senses a limited area based on its sensor range. In addition to the available algorithms, we propose two algorithms to be used in each problem. The simulations conducted on random grid and maze structures show that the algorithms behave differently and have advantages over each other especially as the sensor range varies. Therefore, the proposed study enables the agent to determine the most appropriate algorithm depending on its priorities and sensor range.     

Generalized framework for personalized recommendations in agent networks

An agent network can be modeled as a directed weighted graph whose vertices represent agents and edges represent a trust relationship between the agents. This article proposes a new recommendation approach, dubbed LocPat, which can recommend trustworthy agents to a requester in an agent network. We relate the recommendation problem to the graph similarity problem, and define the similarity measurement as a mutually reinforcing relation. We understand an agent as querying an agent network to which it belongs to generate personalized recommendations. We formulate a query into an agent network as a structure graph applied in a personalized manner that reflects the pattern of relationships centered on the requesting agent. We use this pattern as a basis for recommending an agent or object (a vertex in the graph). By calculating the vertex similarity between the agent network and a structure graph, we can produce a recommendation based on similarity scores that reflect both the link structure and the trust values on the edges. Our resulting approach is generic in that it can capture existing network-based approaches merely through the introduction of appropriate structure graphs. We evaluate different structure graphs with respect to two main kinds of settings, namely, social networks and ratings networks. Our experimental results show that our approach provides personalized and flexible recommendations effectively and efficiently based on local information.