A simple greedy approximation algorithm for the unit disk cover problem

Abstract

Given a set $\mathcal P$ of $n$ points in the plane, the unit disk cover problem, which is known as an NP-hard problem, seeks to find the minimum number of unit disks that can cover all points of $\mathcal P$. We present a new $4$-approximation algorithm with running time $O(n \log n)$ for this problem. Our proposed algorithm uses a simple approach and is easy to understand and implement.

Keywords

• computational geometry
• approximation algorithms
• unit disk cover problem
• facility location