Efficient Spiral Search in Bounded Spaces

Abstract

This correspondence defines approaches for the efficient generation of a spiral-like search pattern within bounded rectangularly tessellated regions. The defined spiral-like search pattern grows outward from a given source in a two-dimensional space, thus tending to minimize search time in many sequential tracking tasks. Efficient spiral generation is achieved by minimizing the number of operations required for interaction with boundaries. Algorithms are developed for both rectangular search regions and for arbitrary convex search regions.