A ROBUST TOPOLOGY-ORIENTED INCREMENTAL ALGORITHM FOR VORONOI DIAGRAMS

Abstract

The paper presents a robust algorithm for constructing Voronoi diagrams in the plane. The algorithm is based on an incremental method, but is quite new in that it is robust against numerical errors. Conventionally, geometric algorithms have been designed on the assumption that numerical errors do not take place, and hence they are not necessarily valid for real computers where numerical errors are inevitable. The algorithm to be proposed in this paper, on the other hand, is designed with the recognition that numerical errors are inevitable in real computation; i.e., in the proposed algorithm higher priority is placed on topological structures than on numerical values. As a result, the algorithm is "completely" robust in the sense that it always gives some output however poor the precision of numerical computation may be. In general, the output cannot be more than an approximation to the true Voronoi diagram which we should have got by infinite-precision computation. However, the algorithm is asymptotically correct in the sense that the output converges to the true diagram as the precision becomes higher. Moreover, careful choice of the way of numerical computation makes the algorithm stable enough; indeed the present version of the algorithm can construct in single-precision arithmetic a correct Voronoi diagram for one million generators randomly placed in the unit square in the plane.