Abstract
In this paper, we study a discrete system of entities residing on a two-dimensional square grid. Each entity is modelled as a node occupying a distinct cell of the grid. The set of all n nodes forms initially a connected shape A. Entities are equipped with a linear-strength pushing mechanism that can push a whole line of entities, from 1 to n, in parallel in a single time-step. A target connected shape B is also provided and the goal is to transform A into B via a sequence of line movements. Existing models based on local movement of individual nodes, such as rotating or sliding a single node, can be shown to be special cases of the present model, therefore their (inefficient, Theta(n(2))) universal transformations carry over. Our main goal is to investigate whether the parallelism inherent in this new type of movement can be exploited for efficient, i.e., sub-quadratic worst-case, transformations. As a first step towards this, we restrict attention solely to centralised transformations and leave the distributed case as a direction for future research. Our results are positive. By focusing on the apparently hard instance of transforming a diagonal A into a straight line B, we first obtain transformations of time O(n root n) without and with preserving the connectivity of the shape throughout the transformation. Then, we further improve by providing two O(n log n)-time transformations for this problem. By building upon these ideas, we first manage to develop an O(n root n)-time universal transformation. Our main result is then an O(n log n)-time universal transformation. We leave as an interesting open problem a suspected Omega(n log n)-time lower bound.