Related papers: A robot that unknots knots

We compose the table of knots in the thickened torus T x I having diagrams with at most 4 crossings. The knots are constructed by the three-step process. First we list regular graphs of degree 4 with at most 4 vertices, then for each graph…

A knotted ribbon is one of physical aspect of a knot. A folded ribbon knot is a depiction of a knot obtained by folding a long and thin rectangular strip to become flat. The ribbonlength of a knot type can be defined as the minimum length…

The (ordinary) unknotting-number of 1-dimensional knots, which is defined by using the crossing-change, is a very basic and important invariant. It is very natural to consider the `unknotting-number' associated with other local-moves on…

Motivated by recent work of Hanser and Mayers, we study two combinatorial puzzles arising from the theory of Kohnert polynomials. Such polynomials are defined as generating polynomials for certain collections of diagrams consisting of unit…

Twisting a given knot $K$ about an unknotted circle $c$ a full $n \in \mathbb{N}$ times, we obtain a "twist family" of knots $\{ K_n \}$. Work of Kouno-Motegi-Shibuya implies that for a non-trivial twist family the crossing numbers…

This paper studies the design, control, and learning of a novel robotic limb that produces overconstrained locomotion by employing the Bennett linkage for motion generation, capable of parametric reconfiguration between a reptile- and…

Isoperimetric robots are large scale, untethered inflatable robots that can undergo large shape changes, but have only been demonstrated in one 3D shape -- an octahedron. These robots consist of independent triangles that can change shape…

Suppose $K$ is an unknot lying in the 1-skeleton of a triangulated 3-manifold with $t$ tetrahedra. Hass and Lagarias showed there is an upper bound, depending only on $t$, for the minimal number of elementary moves to untangle $K$. We give…

This paper gives infinitely many examples of unknot diagrams that are hard, in the sense that the diagrams need to be made more complicated by Reidemeister moves before they can be simplified. In order to construct these diagrams, we prove…

A sign pattern is a matrix whose entries belong to the set $\{+,-,0\}$. A sign pattern requires a unique inertia if every real matrix in its qualitative class has the same inertia. Symmetric tree sign patterns requiring a unique inertia has…

This thesis develops some general calculational techniques for finding the orders of knots in the topological concordance group C. The techniques currently available in the literature are either too theoretical, applying to only a small…

Classical knot theory deals with {\em diagrams} and {\em invariants}. By means of horizontal {\em trisecants}, we construct a new theory of classical braids with invariants valued in {\em pictures}. These pictures are closely related to…

A nonholonomic under-actuated robot with a bounded control range travels inside an unknown and unstructured 3D tunnel bounded by a generic 2D surface. The robot has access to the nearest point of the surface and measures the distance to the…

A rigidity circuit (in 2D) is a minimal dependent set in the rigidity matroid, i.e. a minimal graph supporting a non-trivial stress in any generic placement of its vertices in $\mathbb R^2$. Any rigidity circuit on $n\geq 5$ vertices can be…

For any knot with genus one and unknotting number one, other than the figure-eight knot, we prove that there is exactly one way to unknot it by means of a crossing change. In the case of the figure-eight knot, we prove that there are…

This paper develops a form of finite knot theory as a diagrammatic sequel to the ideal-stratum and deformation-persistence framework for knot types. Thick representatives in bounded ropelength sublevel spaces are studied through the finite…

The kinematics of a robot manipulator are described in terms of the mapping connecting its joint space and the 6-dimensional Euclidean group of motions $SE(3)$. The associated Jacobian matrices map into its Lie algebra $\mathfrak{se}(3)$,…

It has long been known that the quadratic term in the degree of the colored Jones polynomial of a knot is bounded above in terms of the crossing number of the knot. We show that this bound is sharp if and only if the knot is adequate. As an…

We show that for any nontrivial knot $K$ and any natural number $n$ there is a diagram $D$ of $K$ such that the unknotting number of $D$ is greater than or equal to $n$. It is well known that twice the unknotting number of $K$ is less than…

In this paper, we introduce the following new concept in graph drawing. Our task is to find a small collection of drawings such that they all together satisfy some property that is useful for graph visualization. We propose investigating a…