Optimal Competitive Online Ray Search with an Error-Prone Robot

We consider the problem of finding a door along a wall with a blind robot that neither knows the distance to the door nor the direction towards of the door. This problem can be solved with the wellknown doubling strategy yielding an optimal competitive factor of 9 with the assumption that the robot does not make any errors during its movements. We study the case that the robot’s movement is erroneous. In this case the doubling strategy is no longer optimal. We present optimal competitive strategies that take the error assumption into account.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: WEA
• Authors: Thomas Kamphans, Elmar Langetepe
• Keywords: Algorithms, Doubling Strategy, Optimal Competitive Factor, WEA 2005, Wellknown Doubling Strategy