Decomposing a polygon into its convex parts

Abstract

A common operation in geometric computing is the decomposition of complex structures into more basic structures. Since it is easier to apply most algorithms to triangles or arbitrary convex polygons, there is considerable interest in finding fast algorithms for such decompositions. We consider the problem of decomposing a simple (non-convex) polygon into the union of a minimal number of convex polygons. Although the structure of the problem led to the conjecture that it was NP-complete, we have been able to reach polynomial time bounded algorithms for exact solution as well as low degree polynomial time bounded algorithm/or approximation methods.