Construction and Enumeration of Circuits Capable of Guiding a Miniature Vehicle

Abstract

Abstract In contrast to traditional toy tracks, a patented system allows the creation of a large number of tracks with a minimal number of pieces, and whose loops always close properly. These circuits strongly resemble traditional self-avoiding polygons (whose explicit enumeration has not yet been resolved for an arbitrary number of squares) yet there are numerous differences, notably the fact that the geometric constraints are different than those of self-avoiding polygons. We present the methodology allowing the construction and enumeration of all of the possible tracks containing a given number of pieces. For small numbers of pieces, the exact enumeration will be treated. For greater numbers of pieces, only an estimation will be offered. In the latter case, a randomly construction of circuits is also given. We will give some routes for generalizations for similar problems.