The study of what can be computed by a team of autonomous mobile robots, originally started in robotics and AI, has become increasingly popular in theoretical computer science (especially in distributed computing), where it is now an integral part of the investigations on computability by mobile entities. The robots are identical computational entities located and able to move in a spatial universe; they operate without explicit communication and are usually unable to remember the past; they are extremely simple, with limited resources, and individually quite weak. However, collectively the robots are capable of performing complex tasks, and form a system with desirable fault-tolerant and self-stabilizing properties. The research has been concerned with the computational aspects of such systems. In particular, the focus has been on the minimal capabilities that the robots should have in order to solve a problem. This book focuses on the recent algorithmic results in the field of distributed computing by oblivious mobile robots (unable to remember the past). After introducing the computational model with its nuances, we focus on basic coordination problems: pattern formation, gathering, scattering, leader election, as well as on dynamic tasks such as flocking. For each of these problems, we provide a snapshot of the state of the art, reviewing the existing algorithmic results. In doing so, we outline solution techniques, and we analyze the impact of the different assumptions on the robots' computability power. Table of Contents: Introduction / Computational Models / Gathering and Convergence / Pattern Formation / Scatterings and Coverings / Flocking / Other Directions
Paola Flocchini received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Milan, Italy, in 1995. She held positions at the Université de Montreal and Université du Quebec en Outaouais before joining the University of Ottawa in 1999. She is Professor and University Re search Chair in Distributed Computing at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (University of Ottawa). Her main research interests are in distributed algorithms, distributed comput ing, algorithms for mobile agents and autonomous robots, and cellular automata. Giuseppe Prencipe has received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2002 from the University of Pisa, Italy, with a thesis on distributed mobile robots. After his Ph.D. studies, he has continued his investi gations on distributed mobile computing as a Visiting Researcher in Ottawa, at Carleton University and at the University of Ottawa, and in Zurich at ETH. He has been involved in the PC of several distributed computing conferences, and has beenPC co-Chair of SIROCCO in 2007. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa. His main research interests are distributed algorithms, distributed computing, mobile agents computing, and design of algorithms for autonomous mobile robots Nicola Santoro is Distinguished Research Professor of Computer Sci ence at Carleton University. Initially interested in philosophy, he is one of the first computer science graduates in Italy (Pisa'74), discovering the beauty of algorithms and data structures. During his Ph.D. on in formation structure (Waterloo '79), he discovers the net (then called ARPANET) and email, and starts thinking in distributed terms. He contributes seminal papers focusing on the algorithmic aspects and starts some of the main theoretical conferences in the field (PODC, DISC, SIROCCO). He is the author of the book Design and Analysis of Dis tributed Algorithms (Wiley 2007). In 2010 he has been awarded the SIROCCO Prize forInnovation in Distributed Computing. His current research interests include distributed computations by mobile entities (agents, robots, sensors) and in time-varying networks (dynamic, delay-tolerant, vehicular).
