inria-00344310, version 1
Classroom examples of robustness problems in geometric computations
Lutz Kettner a, 1Kurt Mehlhorn 1Sylvain Pion
2Stefan Schirra b, 3Chee Yap c, 4
Computational Geometry 40, 1 (2008) 61-78
Résumé : The algorithms of computational geometry are designed for a machine model with exact real arithmetic. Substituting floating-point arithmetic for the assumed real arithmetic may cause implementations to fail. Although this is well known, there are no concrete examples with a comprehensive documentation of what can go wrong and why. In this paper, we provide a case study of what can go wrong and why. For our study, we have chosen two simple algorithms which are often taught, an algorithm for computing convex hulls in the plane and an algorithm for computing Delaunay triangulations in space. We give examples that make the algorithms fail in many different ways. We also show how to construct such examples systematically and discuss the geometry of the floating-point implementation of the orientation predicate. We hope that our work will be useful for teaching computational geometry.
- a – Max-Planck-Institut
- b – Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg, Germany
- c – Courant Institute
- 1 : Max Planck Institut für Informatik (MPII)
- Max-Planck-Institut
- 2 : GEOMETRICA (INRIA Sophia Antipolis)
- INRIA
- 3 : Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
- Otto von Guericke University
- 4 : Courant Institute of Mathematical Science (CIMS)
- New York University
- Domaine : Informatique/Géométrie algorithmique
Informatique/Arithmétique des ordinateurs - Mots-clés : Implementation – Numerical robustness problems – Floating-point geometry
- inria-00344310, version 1
- http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00344310
- oai:hal.inria.fr:inria-00344310
- Contributeur : Sylvain Pion
- Soumis le : Lundi 15 Décembre 2008, 22:08:10
- Dernière modification le : Mardi 28 Avril 2009, 16:42:24






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