Abstract
We consider a set of k autonomous robots that are endowed with visibility sensors (but that are otherwise unable to communicate) and motion actuators. Those robots must collaborate to reach a single vertex that is unknown beforehand, and to remain there hereafter. Previous works on gathering in ring-shaped networks suggest that there exists a tradeoff between the size of the set of potential initial configurations, and the power of the sensing capabilities of the robots (i.e. the larger the initial configuration set, the most powerful the sensor needs to be). We prove that there is no such trade off. We propose a gathering protocol for an odd number of robots in a ring-shaped network that allows symmetric but not periodic configurations as initial configurations, yet uses only local weak multiplicity detection. Robots are assumed to be anonymous and oblivious, and the execution model is the non-atomic CORDA model with asynchronous fair scheduling. Our protocol allows the largest set of initial configurations (with respect to impossibility results) yet uses the weakest multiplicity detector to date. The time complexity of our protocol is O(n 2), where n denotes the size of the ring. Compared to previous work that also uses local weak multiplicity detection, we do not have the constraint that k < n/2 (here, we simply have 2 < k < n − 3).
This work is supported in part by ANR R-DISCOVER, SHAMAN and Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists ((B)22700074) of JSPS.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.
Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.
References
Blin, L., Milani, A., Potop-Butucaru, M., Tixeuil, S.: Exclusive perpetual ring exploration without chirality. In: Lynch, N.A., Shvartsman, A.A. (eds.) DISC 2010. LNCS, vol. 6343, pp. 312–327. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Cieliebak, M.: Gathering non-oblivious mobile robots. In: Farach-Colton, M. (ed.) LATIN 2004. LNCS, vol. 2976, pp. 577–588. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Cieliebak, M., Flocchini, P., Prencipe, G., Santoro, N.: Solving the robots gathering problem. In: Baeten, J.C.M., Lenstra, J.K., Parrow, J., Woeginger, G.J. (eds.) ICALP 2003. LNCS, vol. 2719, pp. 1181–1196. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Dessmark, A., Fraigniaud, P., Kowalski, D.R., Pelc, A.: Deterministic rendezvous in graphs. Algorithmica 46(1), 69–96 (2006)
Devismes, S., Petit, F., Tixeuil, S.: Optimal probabilistic ring exploration by semi-synchronous oblivious robots. In: Kutten, S., Žerovnik, J. (eds.) SIROCCO 2009. LNCS, vol. 5869, pp. 195–208. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Flocchini, P., Ilcinkas, D., Pelc, A., Santoro, N.: Computing without communicating: Ring exploration by asynchronous oblivious robots. In: Tovar, E., Tsigas, P., Fouchal, H. (eds.) OPODIS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4878, pp. 105–118. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Flocchini, P., Kranakis, E., Krizanc, D., Santoro, N., Sawchuk, C.: Multiple mobile agent rendezvous in a ring. In: Farach-Colton, M. (ed.) LATIN 2004. LNCS, vol. 2976, pp. 599–608. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Flocchini, P., Prencipe, G., Santoro, N., Widmayer, P.: Gathering of asynchronous robots with limited visibility. Theor. Comput. Sci. 337(1-3), 147–168 (2005)
Izumi, T., Izumi, T., Kamei, S., Ooshita, F.: Mobile robots gathering algorithm with local weak multiplicity in rings. In: Patt-Shamir, B., Ekim, T. (eds.) SIROCCO 2010. LNCS, vol. 6058, pp. 101–113. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Kamei, S., Lamani, A., Ooshita, F., Tixeuil, S.: Asynchronous mobile robot gathering from symmetric configurations without global multiplicity detection. Research report (2011), http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00589390/en/
Klasing, R., Kosowski, A., Navarra, A.: Taking advantage of symmetries: Gathering of asynchronous oblivious robots on a ring. In: Baker, T.P., Bui, A., Tixeuil, S. (eds.) OPODIS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5401, pp. 446–462. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Klasing, R., Markou, E., Pelc, A.: Gathering asynchronous oblivious mobile robots in a ring. In: Asano, T. (ed.) ISAAC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4288, pp. 744–753. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Klasing, R., Markou, E., Pelc, A.: Gathering asynchronous oblivious mobile robots in a ring. Theoretical Computer Science 390(1), 27–39 (2008)
Kowalski, D.R., Pelc, A.: Polynomial deterministic rendezvous in arbitrary graphs. In: Fleischer, R., Trippen, G. (eds.) ISAAC 2004. LNCS, vol. 3341, pp. 644–656. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Lamani, A., Potop-Butucaru, M.G., Tixeuil, S.: Optimal deterministic ring exploration with oblivious asynchronous robots. In: Patt-Shamir, B., Ekim, T. (eds.) SIROCCO 2010. LNCS, vol. 6058, pp. 183–196. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
De Marco, G., Gargano, L., Kranakis, E., Krizanc, D., Pelc, A., Vaccaro, U.: Asynchronous deterministic rendezvous in graphs. Theor. Comput. Sci. 355(3), 315–326 (2006)
Prencipe, G.: Corda: Distributed coordination of a set of autonomous mobile robots. In: Proc. 4th European Research Seminar on Advances in Distributed Systems (ERSADS 2001), Bertinoro, Italy, pp. 185–190 (2001)
Prencipe, G.: On the feasibility of gathering by autonomous mobile robots. In: Pelc, A., Raynal, M. (eds.) SIROCCO 2005. LNCS, vol. 3499, pp. 246–261. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kamei, S., Lamani, A., Ooshita, F., Tixeuil, S. (2011). Asynchronous Mobile Robot Gathering from Symmetric Configurations without Global Multiplicity Detection. In: Kosowski, A., Yamashita, M. (eds) Structural Information and Communication Complexity. SIROCCO 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6796. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22212-2_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22212-2_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-22211-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-22212-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)