English

On Targeted Complexity of Discrete Motion

Algebraic Topology 2025-08-12 v1

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate discrete topological complexity TC(K)TC(K) introduced for situations where the configuration space possesses a simplicial structure. %Simplicial complexes are well-known and commonly used in programming for robotic motion. Let KK be a complex and let LL be a subcomplex considered as the target of the motion. We introduce targeted simplicial complexity TC(K,L)TC(K,L), which yields smaller values than the discrete version TC(K)TC(K). We then demonstrate that targeted simplicial complexity is strongly homotopy invariant and it varies between simplicial LS-categories of KK and KKK \prod K. Utilizing this information, we calculate targeted simplicial complexity for scenarios such as strongly collapsible complexes. Finally, we compare targeted simplicial complexity with relative topological complexity and we show that TC(K,L)TC(K,L)TC(|K|, |L|) \le TC (K,L) where |\cdot| denotes the geometric realization functor. Although relative topological complexity is generally lower than targeted simplicial complexity, they are equal in certain cases, such as arbitrary wedges of triangulated circles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.07052,
  title  = {On Targeted Complexity of Discrete Motion},
  author = {Ameneh Babaee and Hanieh Mirebrahimi and Soheila Fahimi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.07052},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:42:36.624Z