Efficient Smoothing of Piecewise Linear Paths with Minimal Deviation

We present an anytime fast deterministic greedy method for smoothing piecewise linear paths consisting of connected linear segments by incrementally removing path points. First, points with only a small influence on path geometry are removed, i.e. aligned or nearly aligned points. Due to the removal of less important path points, the high computational and storage space requirements of the paths are reduced and traversal of the path is accelerated. Our algorithm can be used in the most diverse applications, i.e. sweeping, path finding or programming-by-demonstration in a virtual environment