Chinese postman

problem
By: Ansis, Chirag and Eugene

Background information
The Chinese postman problem, also known as the route inspection problem, is
a problem in the area of graph theory.
Suppose there is a mailman who needs to deliver mail in a certain
neighbourhood. The mailman wants to limit the distance he must cover, but
must make sure he can cover all the streets and at the same time arrive back
at the starting point.

Task
To find the minimum distance required to travel
across all edges of an area while still managing
to finish at the starting point.

Example:
Find the minimum
distance travelled
and the route, that
allows a postman to
reach all areas of the
map and return to
the post office.

Chosen limited area:

Measuring Weight of Node

Changing visual representation of routes

Process (Step 1)
To pick an area that the
group wanted to study
and identify all the edges
and vertices. Our chosen
district in Hong Kong
was Causeway Bay.

Process (Step 1)
All the pathways
were laid out.

Process (Step 2)
After identifying the
vertices and edges,
the pathways were
laid out in a
simplified manner.

Process (Step 3)
A section of Causeway Bay was selected and used as an example. This section
consisted of 12 vertices with odd number of nodes.

Process (Step 4)
We need to make the route Eulerian (such that the traveler returns to the
original point) by adding extra nodes. This makes all odd vertices even.
There should be extra nodes that minimise the extra distance needed to travel.
A piece of software was used to determine this. (Thank you Mr. Chiu!)
Note: A maximum of 12 vertices with odd nodes was used because having 14
vertices with odd nodes would take the computer too long to solve.

Process (Step 4)
Nodes connecting to
odd vertices:

Process (Step 4)
The extra nodes required:

Process (Step 5)
A new route is created with the extra nodes.

Route
A1 B1 C1 D1 D2 C2 C1 D1 D2 D3 C4 C3
B3 B2 C2 C3 C4 B4 B3 B2 B1 A1 B4 B5
E1 E2 E3 E2 E1 E4 E1 B5 A1

Mapping of route
Total distance:
3.71 km.

Problems Encountered
1. Measuring the weights of each node was not very
precise.
2. The number of vertices with odd nodes appeared to
be too numerous for computer to resolve.
3. Interpreting the layout of the routes was difficult.

Solution
1. The measurements conducted had to be rounded
up to account for inaccuracy.
2. Number of vertices with odd nodes was limited to a
maximum of 12. Number of possibilities of pairings
is 10, 395.
3. The routes were redrawn in a more organised
manner.

Evaluation
Teamwork + collaboration
-Good communication
-No arguments and we all worked well
Time management
-not managed very well
-could have made a start much earlier
Creativity
-could be more creative with presentation of results

The end
Thank you for watching and listening!