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International Conference On Principles Of Distributed Systems

OPODIS 2008: Principles of Distributed Systems pp 125–144Cite as

A Self-stabilizing Marching Algorithm for a Group of Oblivious Robots

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 5401))

Abstract

We propose a self-stabilizing marching algorithm for a group of oblivious robots in an obstacle-free workplace. To this end, we develop a distributed algorithm for a group of robots to transport a polygonal object, where each robot holds the object at a corner, and observe that each robot can simulate the algorithm, even after we replace the object by an imaginary one; we thus can use the algorithm as a marching algorithm. Each robot independently computes a velocity vector using the algorithm, moves to a new position with the velocity for a unit of time, and repeats this cycle until it reaches the goal position. The algorithm is oblivious, i.e., the computation depends only on the current robot configuration, and is constructed from a naive algorithm that generates only a selfish move, by adding two simple ingredients. For the case of two robots, we theoretically show that the algorithm is self-stabilizing, and demonstrate by simulations that the algorithm produces a motion that is fairly close to the time-optimal motion. For cases of more than two robots, we show that a natural extension of the algorithm for two robots also produces smooth and elegant motions by simulations as well.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Social Information Systems, Faculty of Information Science, Kyushu Sangyo University, 2-3-1 Matsukadai, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 813-8503, Japan

    Yuichi Asahiro

  2. Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama 1 chome 4-1, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8527, Japan

    Satoshi Fujita

  3. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, PO Box 784, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA

    Ichiro Suzuki

  4. Dept. of Computer Science and Communication Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

    Masafumi Yamashita

Authors
  1. Yuichi Asahiro
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  2. Satoshi Fujita
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  3. Ichiro Suzuki
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  4. Masafumi Yamashita
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Florida State University, 207A Love Building, PO Box 4530, FL 32306-4530, Tallahassee, USA

    Theodore P. Baker

  2. Université de Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 45, avenue des Etats-Unis, 78035, Versailles Cedex, France

    Alain Bui

  3. LIP6 & INRIA Grand Large, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, 104 avenue du Président Kennedy, 75016, Paris, France

    Sébastien Tixeuil

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Asahiro, Y., Fujita, S., Suzuki, I., Yamashita, M. (2008). A Self-stabilizing Marching Algorithm for a Group of Oblivious Robots . In: Baker, T.P., Bui, A., Tixeuil, S. (eds) Principles of Distributed Systems. OPODIS 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5401. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92221-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92221-6_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-92220-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-92221-6

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