A general class of combinatorial filters that can be minimized efficiently

Yulin Zhang,Dylan A. Shell,Yulin Zhang,Dylan A. Shell

State minimization of combinatorial filters is a fundamental problem that arises, for example, in building cheap, resource-efficient robots. But exact minimization is known to be NP-hard. This paper conducts a more nuanced analysis of this hardness than up till now, and uncovers two factors which contribute to this complexity. We show each factor is a distinct source of the problem's hardness and ...