We propose the use of quasi-random sampling techniques for path planning in high-dimensional conguration spaces. Following similar trends from related numerical computation elds, we show several advantages oered by these techniques in comparison to random sampling. Our ideas are evaluated in the context of the probabilistic roadmap (PRM) framework. Two quasi-random variants of PRM-based planners are proposed: 1) a classical PRM with quasi-random sampling, and 2) a quasi-random Lazy-PRM. Both have been implemented, and are shown through experiments to oer some performance advantages in comparison to their randomized counterparts. 1 Introduction Over two decades of path planning research have led to two primary trends. In the 1980s, deterministic approaches provided both elegant, complete algorithms for solving the problem, and also useful approximate or incomplete algorithms. The curse of dimensionality due to high-dimensional conguration spaces motivated researchers from the 199...

Declustering schemes allocate data blocks among multiple disks to enable parallel retrieval. Given a declustering scheme D, its response time with respect to a query Q, rt(Q), is defined to be the maximum number of disk blocks of the query stored by the scheme in any one of the disks. If |Q| is the number of data blocks in Q and M is the number of disks then rt(Q) is at least |Q|/M. One way to evaluate the performance of D with respect to a set of queries Q is to measure its additive error- the maximum difference between rt(Q) from |Q|/M over all range queries Q ∈ Q. In this paper, we consider the problem of designing declustering schemes for uniform multidimensional data arranged in a d-dimensional grid so that their additive errors with respect to range queries are as small as possible. It has been shown that such declustering schemes will have an additive error of Ω(log M) when d = 2 and Ω(log d−1 2 M) when d> 2 with respect to range queries. Asymptotically optimal declustering schemes exist for 2dimensional data. For data in larger dimensions, however, the best bound for additive errors is O(M d−1), which is extremely large. In this paper, we propose the two declustering schemes based on low discrepancy points in d-dimensions. When d is fixed, both schemes have an additive error of O(log d−1 M) with respect to range queries provided certain conditions are satisfied: the first scheme requires d ≥ 3 and M to be a power of a prime where the prime is at least d while the second scheme requires the size of the data to grow within some polynomial of M, with no restriction on

Abstract. We introduce and study a randomized quasi-Monte Carlo method for estimating the state distribution at each step of a Markov chain. The number of steps in the chain can be random and unbounded. The method simulates n copies of the chain in parallel, using a (d + 1)-dimensional highly-uniform point set of cardinality n, randomized independently at each step, where d is the number of uniform random numbers required at each transition of the Markov chain. This technique is effective in particular to obtain a low-variance unbiased estimator of the expected total cost up to some random stopping time, when state-dependent costs are paid at each step. It is generally more effective when the state space has a natural order related to the cost function. We provide numerical illustrations where the variance reduction with respect to standard Monte Carlo is substantial. The variance can be reduced by factors of several thousands in some cases. We prove bounds on the convergence rate of the worst-case error and variance for special situations. In line with what is typically observed in randomized quasi-Monte Carlo contexts, our empirical results indicate much better convergence than what these bounds guarantee.

d\Gamma 1 2) for d-dim schemes and to \Omega (log M) for 2-dim schemes, thus proving that the

Displaying a synthetic image on a computer display requires determining the colors of individual pixels. To avoid aliasing, multiple samples of the image can be taken per pixel, after which the color of a pixel may be computed as a weighted sum of the samples. The positions and weights of the samples play a major role in the resulting image quality, especially in real-time applications where usually only a handful of samples can be afforded per pixel. This paper presents a new error metric and an optimization method for antialiasing patterns used in image reconstruction. The metric is based on comparing the pattern against a given reference reconstruction filter in spatial domain and it takes into account psychovisually measured angle-specific acuities for sharp features. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation – Antialiasing

Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) methods have begun to displace ordinary Monte Carlo (MC) methods in many practical problems. It is natural and obvious to combine QMC methods with traditional variance reduction techniques used in MC sampling, such as control variates. There can,

We introduce the notion of low-discrepancy curves and use it to solve the problem of optimally covering space. In doing so, we extend the notion of low-discrepancy sequences in such a way that sufficiently smooth curves with low discrepancy properties can be defined and generated. Based on a class of curves that cover the unit square in an efficient way, we define induced low discrepancy curves in Riemannian spaces. This allows us to efficiently cover an arbitrarily chosen abstract surface that admits a diffeomorphism to the unit square. We demonstrate the application of these ideas by presenting concrete examples of low-discrepancy curves on some surfaces that are of interest in robotics.

This paper analyzes some schemes for reducing the computational burden of digital scrambling. Some such schemes have been shown not to affect the mean squared L² discrepancy. This paper shows that some discrepancy-preserving alternative scrambles can change the variance in scrambled net quadrature. Even the rate of convergence can be adversely affected by alternative scramblings. Finally, some alternatives reduce the computational burden and can also be shown to improve the rate of convergence for the variance, at least in dimension 1.

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Abstract: The design of constrained, “plant-friendly ” multisine input signals that optimize a geometric discrepancy criterion arising from Weyl’s Theorem is examined in this paper. Such signals are meaningful for data-centric estimation methods, where uniform coverage of the output state-space is critical. The usefulness of this problem formulation is demonstrated by applying it to a linear example and to the nonlinear, highly interactive distillation column model developed by Weischedel and McAvoy (1980). The optimization problem includes a search for both the Fourier coefficients and phases in the multisine signal, resulting in an uniformly distributed output signal displaying a desirable balance between high and low gain directions. The solution involves very little user intervention (which enhances its practical usefulness) and has significant benefits compared to multisine signals that minimize crest factor.