Classroom Examples of Robustness Problems in Geometric Computations

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.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: ESA
• Authors: Lutz Kettner, Kurt Mehlhorn, Sylvain Pion, Stefan Schirra, Chee-Keng Yap
• Keywords: Algorithms, Computational Geometry, ESA 2004, floating-point Arithmetic