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Determining approximate shortest paths on weighted polyhedral surfaces

Published: 01 January 2005 Publication History

Abstract

In this article, we present an approximation algorithm for solving the single source shortest paths problem on weighted polyhedral surfaces. We consider a polyhedral surface P as consisting of n triangular faces, where each face has an associated positive weight. The cost of travel through a face is the Euclidean distance traveled, multiplied by the face's weight. For a given parameter ε, 0 <ε < 1, the cost of the computed paths is at most 1 + ε times the cost of corresponding shortest paths. Our algorithm is based on a novel way of discretizing polyhedral surfaces and utilizes a generic greedy approach for computing shortest paths in geometric graphs obtained by such discretization. Its running time is O(C(P)n/√ε log n/ε log 1/ε) time, where C(P) captures geometric parameters and the weights of the faces of P.

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    cover image Journal of the ACM
    Journal of the ACM  Volume 52, Issue 1
    January 2005
    146 pages
    ISSN:0004-5411
    EISSN:1557-735X
    DOI:10.1145/1044731
    Issue’s Table of Contents
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    Publication History

    Published: 01 January 2005
    Published in JACM Volume 52, Issue 1

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    Author Tags

    1. Design and analysis of algorithms
    2. approximation algorithms
    3. computational geometry
    4. polyhedral surfaces
    5. shortest path problems
    6. weighted paths

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