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Non-uniform circle formation algorithm for oblivious mobile robots with convergence toward uniformity

Published: 01 May 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents a distributed algorithm whereby a group of mobile robots self-organize and position themselves into forming a circle in a loosely synchronized environment. In spite of its apparent simplicity, the difficulty of the problem comes from the weak assumptions made on the system. In particular, robots are anonymous, oblivious (i.e., stateless), unable to communicate directly, and disoriented in the sense that they share no knowledge of a common coordinate system. Furthermore, robots' activations are not synchronized. More specifically, the proposed algorithm ensures that robots deterministically form a non-uniform circle in a finite number of steps and converges to a situation in which all robots are located evenly on the boundary of the circle.

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  • (2022)Asynchronous Line Formation in Presence of Faulty RobotsProceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networking, Systems and Security10.1145/3569551.3569553(75-82)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2022
  • (2022)Uniform Scattering of Robots on Alternate Nodes of a GridProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3491003.3493231(254-259)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2022
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Published In

cover image Theoretical Computer Science
Theoretical Computer Science  Volume 396, Issue 1-3
May, 2008
305 pages

Publisher

Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd.

United Kingdom

Publication History

Published: 01 May 2008

Author Tags

  1. Circle formation
  2. Cooperation and control
  3. Distributed algorithms
  4. Distributed computing
  5. Mobile robots

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  • (2024)K Circle Formation by Swarm Robots on a GridProceedings of the 25th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3631461.3632304(334-339)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
  • (2022)Asynchronous Line Formation in Presence of Faulty RobotsProceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networking, Systems and Security10.1145/3569551.3569553(75-82)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2022
  • (2022)Uniform Scattering of Robots on Alternate Nodes of a GridProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3491003.3493231(254-259)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2022
  • (2022)k-Circle Formation by Oblivious Mobile RobotsProceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3491003.3491299(238-239)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2022
  • (2020)Uniform Circle Formation by Fat Robots Under Non-Uniform Visibility RangesProceedings of the 21st International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3369740.3372779(1-5)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2020
  • (2020)Fast Uniform Scattering on a Grid for Asynchronous Oblivious RobotsStabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems10.1007/978-3-030-64348-5_17(211-228)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2020
  • (2019)Time-optimal uniform scattering in a gridProceedings of the 20th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking10.1145/3288599.3288622(228-237)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2019
  • (2018)Event-triggered circle formation control for second-order-agent systemNeurocomputing10.1016/j.neucom.2017.08.061275:C(462-469)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2018
  • (2017)Mutual visibility by luminous robots without collisionsInformation and Computation10.1016/j.ic.2016.09.005254:P3(392-418)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2017
  • (2017)Distributed computing by mobile robotsDistributed Computing10.1007/s00446-016-0291-x30:6(413-457)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2017
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