Wang Tiles

By Matthew Singer, Vishant Prabhakaran,

and Nir Shtuhl

Wang Tiles
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

(4 1 7 0)

(0 0 2 3)

(5 6 2 3)

Tiling The Plane - Periodic

Tiling The Plane - Aperiodic

Robinsons Theorem

Any set of four Wang tiles which can tile the plane in
some manner must also be able to tile the plane
periodically.
Can tile the plane periodically
Cannot tile the plane
Can tile the plane, but not periodically
Brute force approach: recognize the first two cases

Tiling - Shape

Tiling - Shape
1

2
2

3
1

Doesnt Tile: Feasible

Dont Compute The Same Thing Twice:

Equivalent Wang Sets
Regular

Tiles: Reected

Colors: Permuted

Dont Compute The Same Thing Twice:

Equivalent Wang Sets

Dont Compute The Same Thing Twice:

Equivalent Wang Sets

D 4 x Sn

Manual Check

Results
All sets of four two colored Wang tiles either cannot
tile the plane or some subset of them tiles the plane
Time to run algorithm on two colors: 7 seconds
102 sets of four three colored Wang tiles not yet
computationally binned into can tile periodically/
cannot tile categories
Time to run algorithm on three colors: 16 Minutes

Possible Improvements
Run extensive time tests to determine which steps
are the most costly, put them at the end
Instead of discarding something if an equivalent set
has already been computed over, only generate
non-equivalent sets

Parking
Assignment
Andrew Gilbert
Zachary Wassall

Basic Model
City with L parking lots, we wish to send
cars to lots efficiently.
Assumptions:
o
o
o
o

Arrival of cars is Poisson with rate .

Cars stay parked in a lot for an exponential amount of time.
Cars randomly select lots proportional to open spaces in each lot.
Cars encounter a fixed delay traveling to lot (so another car might enter
in the meanwhile).

Model cont.
Fluid Model
o Assume number of cars in each lot can be approximated as a continuous
flow, rather than discretely.
o Diff eqs are thus easily solved for.

o Model with empty spaces N, total capacity C will be stable if delay in

reaching spot is less than crit

Initial Simulation
We test to see if this crit value is accurate using
basic Perl script:

Realistic Simulation
Selected to
use a familiar
environment
Has parking
lots, daily
commuters
Data pulled
from
OpenStreetMa
p

SUMO: Simulation of Urban

Mobility
Road traffic
simulation to the
individual vehicle
level
Compatible with
OpenStreetMap
Realistic, flexible,
and fast

Leveraging SUMO
Controllable via
Python
Simulate
commuters and
parking lots with
varying logic
o Nearest
o Departure-time
o Real-time

Results
Results collected were mainly heuristic
Real commuter behavior is more efficient than
could be recreated in simple simulation
Other/more realistic behavior patterns?
Beyond this small microcosm?

Further Steps
Empirical evidence!
o Get some real life data about parking to improve simulation, motivate
more accurate model assumptions
o Take car counts in lots across a city, surveys about parking wait times
(available from some cities transportation departments already)

Sources
Math 3000 Wang Tile Handouts Professor Eigen
http://spiralforums.biz/uploads/
post-8584-1192998035.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_tile