Nearest constrained circular words

In this paper, we study circular words arising in the development of equipment using shields in brachytherapy. This equipment has physical constraints that have to be taken into consideration. From an algorithmic point of view, the problem can be formulated as follows: Given a circular word, find a constrained circular word of the same length such that the Manhattan distance between these two words is minimal. We show that we can solve this problem in pseudo polynomial time (polynomial time in practice) using dynamic programming.