Authors
Sebastian Brandt, Klaus-Tycho Foerster, Benjamin Richner, Roger Wattenhofer
Publication date
2020/4/2
Journal
Theoretical Computer Science
Volume
811
Pages
56-69
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
We study the online problem of evacuating k robots on m concurrent rays to a single unknown exit. All k robots start on the same point s, not necessarily on the junction j of the m rays, move at unit speed, and can communicate wirelessly. The goal is to minimize the competitive ratio, ie, the ratio between the time it takes to evacuate all robots to the exit and the time it would take if the location of the exit was known in advance, in the worst-case instance. When k= m, we show that a simple waiting strategy yields a competitive ratio of 4 and present a lower bound of 2+ 7/3≈ 3.52753 for all k= m≥ 3. For k= 3 robots on m= 3 rays, we give a class of parametrized algorithms with a nearly matching competitive ratio of 2+ 3≈ 3.73205. We also present an algorithm for 1< k< m, achieving a competitive ratio of 1+ 2⋅ m− 1 k⋅(1+ k m− 1) 1+ m− 1 k, obtained by parameter optimization on a geometric search strategy. Interestingly …
Total citations
201920202021202220232024462141
Scholar articles
S Brandt, KT Foerster, B Richner, R Wattenhofer - Theoretical Computer Science, 2020