1,721,052 research outputs found
From multi-agent pathfinding to 3D pipe routing
The 2D Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) problem aims at finding collision-free paths for a number of agents, from a set of start locations to a set of goal locations in a known 2D environment. MAPF has been studied in theoretical computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence over several decades, due to its importance for robot navigation. It is currently experiencing significant scientific progress due to its relevance for automated warehouses (such as those operated by Amazon) and other important application areas. In this paper, we demonstrate that some recently developed MAPF algorithms apply more broadly than currently believed in the MAPF research community. In particular, we describe the 3D Pipe Routing (PR) problem, which aims at placing collisionfree pipes from given start locations to given goal locations in a known 3D environment. The MAPF and PR problems are similar: a solution to a MAPF instance is a set of blocked cells in x-y-t space, while a solution to the corresponding PR instance is a set of blocked cells in x-y-z space. We show how to use this similarity to apply several recently developed MAPF algorithms to the PR problem, and discuss their performance on real-world PR instances. This opens up a new direction of industrial relevance for the MAPF research community.</p
F-cardinal conflicts in conflict-based search
Conflict-Based Search (CBS) is a leading algorithm for optimal Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) which features strong performance. In CBS, one conflict in a high-level node is resolved to generate two child nodes, until a node with no conflicts is found. Choosing the right conflict to resolve can greatly speed up the search. It is currently recommended to resolve cardinal conflicts first, resolving them yields two child nodes with a higher cost than the cost of their parent. However, since the recent addition of high-level heuristics to CBS, when resolving cardinal conflicts, the h-value of high-level child nodes often decreases by the same amount as their cost increases. This diminishes the effectiveness of the cardinal conflicts distinction. We propose an expanded categorization of conflicts into f-cardinal, g-cardinal, and non-cardinal. F-cardinal conflicts should be resolved first. Resolving f-cardinal conflicts generates child nodes with an increased f-value relative to their parent. We propose two methods for identifying f-cardinal conflicts. Finally, we demonstrate on standard benchmarks that choosing conflicts according to this expanded categorization increases the effectiveness of modern CBS
F-cardinal conflicts in conflict-based search
Conflict-Based Search (CBS) is a leading algorithm for optimal Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) which features strong performance. In CBS, one conflict in a high-level node is resolved to generate two child nodes, until a node with no conflicts is found. Choosing the right conflict to resolve can greatly speed up the search. It is currently recommended to resolve cardinal conflicts first, resolving them yields two child nodes with a higher cost than the cost of their parent. However, since the recent addition of high-level heuristics to CBS, when resolving cardinal conflicts, the h-value of high-level child nodes often decreases by the same amount as their cost increases. This diminishes the effectiveness of the cardinal conflicts distinction. We propose an expanded categorization of conflicts into f-cardinal, g-cardinal, and non-cardinal. F-cardinal conflicts should be resolved first. Resolving f-cardinal conflicts generates child nodes with an increased f-value relative to their parent. We propose two methods for identifying f-cardinal conflicts. Finally, we demonstrate on standard benchmarks that choosing conflicts according to this expanded categorization increases the effectiveness of modern CBS
Path Planning with CPD Heuristics
Compressed Path Databases (CPDs) are a leading technique for optimal pathfinding in graphs with static edge costs. In this work we investigate CPDs as admissible heuristic functions and we apply them in two distinct settings: problems where the graph is subject to dynamically changing costs, and anytime settings where deliberation time is limited. Conventional heuristics derive cost-to-go estimates by reasoning about a tentative and usually infeasible path, from the current node to the target. CPD-based heuristics derive cost-to-go estimates by computing a concrete and usually feasible path. We exploit such paths to bound the optimal solution, not just from below but also from above. We demonstrate the benefit of this approach in a range of experiments on standard gridmaps and in comparison to Landmarks, a popular alternative also developed for searching in explicit state-spaces.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
On the Notion of Plan Quality for PDDL+
PDDL+ is a planning formalism designed to model mixed continuous-discrete problems. Despite its expressiveness, the absence of a well-established framework for evaluating plan quality makes it challenging to use PDDL+ in applications where plan shape and quality are crucial. This paper addresses this issue by introducing a comprehensive set of plan cost functions tailored for discrete-time PDDL+, along with a cost-preserving translation for generating cost-aware PDDL2.1 planning tasks. The plan cost functions provide a theoretical ground for assessing plan quality, whereas the translation shows their practicability by leveraging the connection between PDDL+ and PDDL2.1.</p
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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