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Ten Open Problems in Rendezvous Search

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Search Theory

Abstract

The rendezvous search problem asks how two (or more) agents who are lost in a common region can optimize the process by which they meet. Usually they have restricted speed (unit speed in the continuous time context; moves allowed to adjacent nodes in discrete time). In all cases the agents are not aware of each other’s location. This chapter is concerned with the ‘operations research’ version of the problem – where optimization of the search process is interpreted as minimizing the expected time to meet, or possibly maximizing the probability of meeting within a given time. The deterministic approaches taken by the theoretical computer science community will not be considered here.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ORMS Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Steve Alpern

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  1. Steve Alpern
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Correspondence to Steve Alpern .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warwick, Warwick Business School, Scarman Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

    Steve Alpern

  2. , Institute of Applied Mathematics, Technical University Delft, Mekelweg, Delft, 2628 CD, Netherlands

    Robbert Fokkink

  3. , Complexity Theory and Algorithmics Group, University of Liverpool, Ashton Building, Ashton Street, Liverpool, L69 3BX, United Kingdom

    Leszek Gąsieniec

  4. , Section Military Operations Research, Netherlands Defense Academy, Kraanstraat 4, Breda, 4811 MA, Netherlands

    Roy Lindelauf

  5. , Computer Science Department, University of Maryland, AV Williams Building, College Park, 20854, Maryland, USA

    V.S. Subrahmanian

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Alpern, S. (2013). Ten Open Problems in Rendezvous Search. In: Alpern, S., Fokkink, R., Gąsieniec, L., Lindelauf, R., Subrahmanian, V. (eds) Search Theory. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6825-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6825-7_14

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6824-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6825-7

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