🍩 Database of Original & Non-Theoretical Uses of Topology

(found 4 matches in 0.000925s)

  1. Sheaves Are the Canonical Data Structure for Sensor Integration (2017)

    Michael Robinson
    Abstract A sensor integration framework should be sufficiently general to accurately represent many sensor modalities, and also be able to summarize information in a faithful way that emphasizes important, actionable information. Few approaches adequately address these two discordant requirements. The purpose of this expository paper is to explain why sheaves are the canonical data structure for sensor integration and how the mathematics of sheaves satisfies our two requirements. We outline some of the powerful inferential tools that are not available to other representational frameworks.

  2. Coverage in Sensor Networks via Persistent Homology (2007)

    Vin de Silva, Robert Ghrist
    Abstract We introduce a topological approach to a problem of covering a region in Euclidean space by balls of fixed radius at unknown locations (this problem being motivated by sensor networks with minimal sensing capabilities). In particular, we give a homological criterion to rigorously guarantee that a collection of balls covers a bounded domain based on the homology of a certain simplicial pair. This pair of (Vietoris–Rips) complexes is derived from graphs representing a coarse form of distance estimation between nodes and a proximity sensor for the boundary of the domain. The methods we introduce come from persistent homology theory and are applicable to nonlocalized sensor networks with ad hoc wireless communications.

  3. Positive Alexander Duality for Pursuit and Evasion (2017)

    Robert Ghrist, Sanjeevi Krishnan
    Abstract Considered is a class of pursuit-evasion games, in which an evader tries to avoid detection. Such games can be formulated as the search for sections to the complement of a coverage region in a Euclidean space over time. Prior results give homological criteria for evasion in the general case that are not necessary and sufficient. This paper provides a necessary and sufficient positive cohomological criterion for evasion in the general case. The principal tools are (1) a refinement of the Čech cohomology of a coverage region with a positive cone encoding spatial orientation, (2) a refinement of the Borel--Moore homology of the coverage gaps with a positive cone encoding time orientation, and (3) a positive variant of Alexander Duality. Positive cohomology decomposes as the global sections of a sheaf of local positive cohomology over the time axis; we show how this decomposition makes positive cohomology computable using techniques of computational polyhedral geometry and linear programming.

  4. Evasion Paths in Mobile Sensor Networks (2015)

    Henry Adams, Gunnar Carlsson
    Abstract Suppose that ball-shaped sensors wander in a bounded domain. A sensor does not know its location but does know when it overlaps a nearby sensor. We say that an evasion path exists in this sensor network if a moving intruder can avoid detection. In ‘Coordinate-free coverage in sensor networks with controlled boundaries via homology', Vin de Silva and Robert Ghrist give a necessary condition, depending only on the time-varying connectivity data of the sensors, for an evasion path to exist. Using zigzag persistent homology, we provide an equivalent condition that moreover can be computed in a streaming fashion. However, no method with time-varying connectivity data as input can give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an evasion path. Indeed, we show that the existence of an evasion path depends not only on the fibrewise homotopy type of the region covered by sensors but also on its embedding in spacetime. For planar sensors that also measure weak rotation and distance information, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an evasion path.