Finding a good figure that approximately passes through given points

A system is presented which, when given a list of points on the plane, will find a good figure to approximately pass through the points. Some of the thirteen figures considered are the line segment, circle, parallelogram, and equilateral triangle. The system searches a disjunctive (or) goal tree. We are performing research needed in the development of a robot manipulator system. Object recognition is a very important part of the system. Although the robot will be sensing three-dimensional objects from tactile or other sensors, there are reasons for first treating the two-dimensional case.