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We prove PSPACE-completeness of Push-1: given a rectangular grid of 1 x 1 cells, each possibly occupied by a movable block, can a robot move from one specified location to another, given the ability to push up to one block at a time? In…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2026-05-11 MIT Hardness Group , Josh Brunner , Lily Chung , Erik D. Demaine , Jenny Diomidova , Della Hendrickson , Jayson Lynch

Push-1 is one of the simplest abstract frameworks for motion planning; however, the complexity of deciding if a Push-1 problem can be solved was a several-decade-old open question. We resolve the complexity of the motion planning problem…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2025-09-03 Zachary DeStefano , Bufang Liang

The Hanano Puzzle is a one-player game with irreversible gravity, where the goal is to make colored blocks make contact with flowers of the corresponding color. The game Jelly no Puzzle shares similar mechanics. In general, determining if a…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2026-01-14 Michael C. Chavrimootoo , Jin Seok Youn

We prove PSPACE-completeness of the well-studied pushing-block puzzle Push-1F, a theoretical abstraction of many video games (introduced in 1999). The proof also extends to Push-$k$ for any $k \ge 2$. We also prove PSPACE-completeness of…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2024-12-31 Hayashi Ani , Lily Chung , Erik D. Demaine , Jenny Diomidova , Della Hendrickson , Jayson Lynch

We prove that a variant of 2048, a popular online puzzle game, is PSPACE-Complete. Our hardness result holds for a version of the problem where the player has oracle access to the computer player's moves. Specifically, we show that for an…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2014-08-28 Rahul Mehta

The problem of searching a polygonal region for an unpredictably moving intruder by a set of stationary guards, each carrying an orientable laser, is known as the Searchlight Scheduling Problem. Determining the computational complexity of…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2015-03-20 Giovanni Viglietta

Using the notion of visibility representations, our paper establishes a new property of instances of the Nondeterministic Constraint Logic (NCL) problem (a PSPACE-complete problem that is very convenient to prove the PSPACE-hardness of…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2023-04-27 Michael C. Chavrimootoo

Many problems in compositional synthesis and verification of multi-agent systems -- such as rational verification and assume-guarantee verification in probabilistic systems -- reduce to reasoning about two-player multi-objective stochastic…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-16 Moritz Graf , Anthony Lin , Rupak Majumdar

We analyze affine reachability problems in dimensions 1 and 2. We show that the reachability problem for 1-register machines over the integers with affine updates is PSPACE-hard, hence PSPACE-complete, strengthening a result by Finkel et…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2020-07-03 Stefan Jaax , Stefan Kiefer

We prove that two pushing-blocks puzzles are intractable in 2D. One of our constructions improves an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99] for a puzzle inspired by the game PushPush. The second construction answers a…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Erik D. Demaine , Martin L. Demaine , Joseph O'Rourke

0-1 Knapsack is a fundamental NP-complete problem. In this article we prove that it remains NP-complete even when the weights of the objects in the packing constraints and their values in the objective function satisfy specific stringent…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2009-10-15 Chinmay Karande

We consider the $n\times n$ game of Phutball. It is shown that, given an arbitrary position of stones on the board, it is a PSPACE-hard problem to determine whether the specified player can win the game, regardless of the opponent's choices…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-03-05 Dariusz Dereniowski

Despite its long history, the classical game of peg solitaire continues to attract the attention of the scientific community. In this paper, we consider two problems with an algorithmic flavour which are related with this game, namely…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2016-05-16 Luciano Gualà , Stefano Leucci , Emanuele Natale , Roberto Tauraso

It is well known that Sokoban is PSPACE-complete (Culberson 1998) and several of its variants are NP-hard (Demaine et al. 2003). In this paper we prove the NP-hardness of some variants of Sokoban where the warehouse keeper can only pull…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2010-08-18 Marcus Ritt

We present a nondeterministic model of computation based on reversing edge directions in weighted directed graphs with minimum in-flow constraints on vertices. Deciding whether this simple graph model can be manipulated in order to reverse…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Robert A. Hearn , Erik D. Demaine

In unlabeled multi-robot motion planning several interchangeable robots operate in a common workspace. The goal is to move the robots to a set of target positions such that each position will be occupied by some robot. In this paper, we…

Robotics · Computer Science 2015-04-21 Kiril Solovey , Dan Halperin

We prove computational intractability of variants of checkers: (1) deciding whether there is a move that forces the other player to win in one move is NP-complete; (2) checkers where players must always be able to jump on their turn is…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2018-06-15 Jeffrey Bosboom , Spencer Congero , Erik D. Demaine , Martin L. Demaine , Jayson Lynch

We study a new modification of the Arrival problem, which allows for nodes that exhibit random as well as controlled behaviour, in addition to switching nodes. We study the computational complexity of these extensions, building on existing…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2024-09-17 Thomas Webster

We study the verification of distributed systems where processes are finite automata with access to a shared pool of locks. We consider objectives that are boolean combinations of local regular constraints. We show that the problem,…

Formal Languages and Automata Theory · Computer Science 2022-10-17 Corto Mascle

We investigate algorithmic control of a large swarm of mobile particles (such as robots, sensors, or building material) that move in a 2D workspace using a global input signal (such as gravity or a magnetic field). We show that a maze of…

Emerging Technologies · Computer Science 2017-12-05 Aaron T. Becker , Erik D. Demaine , Sándor P. Fekete , Jarrett Lonsforda , Rose Morris-Wright
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