We introduce splitter networks, which abstract the behavior of conveyor belts found in the video game Factorio. Based on this definition, we show how to compute the steady-state of a splitter network. Then, leveraging insights from the players community, we provide multiple designs of splitter networks capable of load-balancing among several conveyor belts, and prove that any load-balancing network on $n$ belts must have $\Omega(n \log n)$ nodes. Incidentally, we establish connections between splitter networks and various concepts including flow algorithms, flows with equality constraints, Markov chains and the Knuth-Yao theorem about sampling over rational distributions using a fair coin.

翻译：我们引入分流器网络，该网络抽象了电子游戏《异星工厂》中传送带的行为。基于这一定义，我们展示了如何计算分流器网络的稳态。随后，借鉴玩家社区的见解，我们提供了多种能在多条传送带间实现负载均衡的分流器网络设计方案，并证明任何在$n$条传送带上的负载均衡网络必须包含$\Omega(n \log n)$个节点。此外，我们建立了分流器网络与多种概念之间的联系，包括流算法、带等式约束的流、马尔可夫链以及关于使用公平硬币在有理分布上采样的Knuth-Yao定理。