A new approximation algorithm for bend minimization in the Kandinsky model

Abstract

The Kandinsky model has been introduced by Fößmeier and Kaufmann in order to deal with planar orthogonal drawings of planar graphs with maximal vertex degree higher than four [7]. No polynomial-time algorithm is known for computing a (region preserving) bend minimal Kandinsky drawing. In this paper we suggest a new 2-approximation algorithm for this problem. Our extensive computational experiments [13] show that the quality of the computed solutions is better than those of its predecessors [6]. E.g., for all instances in the Rome graph benchmark library [4] it computed the optimal solution, and for randomly generated triangulated graphs with up to 800 vertices, the absolute error was less than 2 on average. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.