Lectue8_Robustness.ppt

Oct 18, 2001 Talk @ MIT Yap Survey and Recent Results: Robust Geometric Computation Chee Yap Department of Computer Science Courant Institute New York University OVERVIEW Part I: NonRobustness Survey Part II: Exact Geometric Computation Core Library Constructive Root Bounds Part III: New Directions Moore’s Law and NonRobustness Certification Paradigm Conclusion Numerical Nonrobustness Phenomenon Part I: OVERVIEW The Phenomenon What is Geometric? Taxonomy of Approaches EGC and relatives Numerical Non-robustness Non-robustness phenomenon crash, inconsistent state, intermittent Round-off errors benign vs. catastrophic quantitative vs. qualitative Examples Intersection of 2 lines check if intersection point is on line Mesh Generation point classification error (dirty meshes) Trimmed algebraic patches in CAD bounding curves are approximated leading to topological inconsistencies Front Tracking Physics Simulation front surface becomes self-intersecting Responses to Non-robustness “It is a rare event” “Use more stable algorithms” “Avoid ill-conditioned inputs” “Epsilon-tweaking” “There is no solution” “Our competitors couldn’t do it, so we don’t have to bother” Impact of Non-robustness Acknowledged, seldom demanded Economic/productivity Impact barrier to full automation scientist/programmer productivity mission critical computation fail Patriot missile, Ariadne Rocket E.g. Mesh generation a preliminary step for simulations 1 failure/5 million cells [Aftosmis] tweak data if failure What is Special about Geometry? Geometry is Harder Geometry = Combinatorics+Numerics E.g. Voronoi Diagram Example: Convex Hulls Consistency Geometric Object Consistency Relation (P) E.g. D is convex hull or Voronoi diagram Qualitative error ? inconsistency Examples/Nonexamples Consistency is critical matrix multiplication shortest paths in graphs (e.g. Djikstra’s algorithm) sorting and geometric sorting Euclidean shortest paths Taxonomy of Approaches Gold Standard Must un