Related papers: Solution to the Number Rotation Puzzle
Segerman's 15+4 puzzle is a hinged version of the classic 15-puzzle, in which the tiles rotate as they slide around. In 1974, Wilson classified the groups of solutions to sliding block puzzles. We generalize Wilson's result to puzzles like…
The Container Relocation Problem (CRP) is concerned with finding a sequence of moves of containers that minimizes the number of relocations needed to retrieve all containers respecting a given order of retrieval. While the problem is known…
Due to the limited number of bits in floating-point or fixed-point arithmetic, rounding is a necessary step in many computations. Although rounding methods can be tailored for different applications, round-off errors are generally…
In the modular robot reconfiguration problem, we are given $n$ cube-shaped modules (or robots) as well as two configurations, i.e., placements of the $n$ modules so that their union is face-connected. The goal is to find a sequence of moves…
Nonograms are a popular type of puzzle, where an arrangement of curves in the plane (in the classic version, a rectangular grid) is given together with a series of hints, indicating which cells of the subdivision are to be colored. The…
Spiral Galaxies is a pencil-and-paper puzzle played on a grid of unit squares: given a set of points called centers, the goal is to partition the grid into polyominoes such that each polyomino contains exactly one center and is 180{\deg}…
Over the last decade, Sudoku, a combinatorial number-placement puzzle, has become a favorite pastimes of many all around the world. In this puzzle, the task is to complete a partially filled $9 \times 9$ square with numbers 1 through 9,…
We present a coordination method for multiple mobile manipulators to sort objects in clutter. We consider the object rearrangement problem in which the objects must be sorted into different groups in a particular order. In clutter, the…
A shuffle of two strings is formed by interleaving the characters into a new string, keeping the characters of each string in order. A string is a square if it is a shuffle of two identical strings. There is a known polynomial time dynamic…
We consider the problem of determining the minimum number of moves needed to solve a certain one-dimensional peg puzzle. Let N be a positive integer. The puzzle apparatus consists of a block with a single row of 2N+1 equally spaced holes…
This paper studies the underlying combinatorial structure of a class of object rearrangement problems, which appear frequently in applications. The problems involve multiple, similar-geometry objects placed on a flat, horizontal surface,…
The problem of diagonalizing a class of complicated matrices, to be called ultrametric matrices, is investigated. These matrices appear at various stages in the description of disordered systems with many equilibrium phases by the technique…
The Picker Routing Problem (PRP), which consists of finding a minimum-length tour between a set of storage locations in a warehouse, is one of the most important problems in the warehousing logistics literature. Despite its popularity, the…
An archetypal problem discussed in computer science is the problem of searching for a given number in a given set of numbers. Other than sequential search, the classic solution is to sort the list of numbers and then apply binary search.…
In this paper we introduce new types of square-piece jigsaw puzzles, where in addition to the unknown location and orientation of each piece, a piece might also need to be flipped. These puzzles, which are associated with a number of real…
New algorithms are presented for numerical conformal mapping based on rational approximations and the solution of Dirichlet problems by least-squares fitting on the boundary. The methods are targeted at regions with corners, where the…
This paper presents general relativistic numerical simulations of uniformly rotating polytropes. Equations are developed using MSQI coordinates, but taking a logarithm of the radial coordinate. The result is relatively simple elliptical…
The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is an NP-hard optimization problem that has been an interest of research for decades in science and industry. The objective is to plan routes of vehicles to deliver goods to a fixed number of customers with…
We study the random rotation number for random circle homeomorphisms. We introduce two new definitions of the random rotation number that can be stated without reference to any choice of lift of the dynamics to the real line, and prove that…
Motivated by advances is nanoscale applications and simplistic robot agents, we look at problems based on using a global signal to move all agents when given a limited number of directional signals and immovable geometry. We study a model…