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Solving the Robots Gathering Problem

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Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2719))

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Abstract

Consider a set of n > 2 simple autonomous mobile robots (decentralized, asynchronous, no common coordinate system, no identities, no central coordination, no direct communication, no memory of the past, deterministic) moving freely in the plane and able to sense the positions of the other robots. We study the primitive task of gathering them at a point not fixed in advance (Gathering Problem). In the literature, most contributions are simulation-validated heuristics. The existing algorithmic contributions for such robots are limited to solutions for n ≤ 4 or for restricted sets of initial configurations of the robots. In this paper, we present the first algorithm that solves the Gathering Problem for any initial configuration of the robots.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ETH Zurich, Zurich

    Mark Cieliebak

  2. University of Ottawa, Ottawa

    Paola Flocchini

  3. University of Pisa, Pisa

    Giuseppe Prencipe

  4. Carleton University, Canada

    Nicola Santoro

Authors
  1. Mark Cieliebak
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  2. Paola Flocchini
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  3. Giuseppe Prencipe
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  4. Nicola Santoro
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Jos C. M. Baeten

  2. School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 765 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0205, USA

    Jan Karel Lenstra

  3. Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 337, 75105, Uppsala, Sweden

    Joachim Parrow

  4. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Gerhard J. Woeginger

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cieliebak, M., Flocchini, P., Prencipe, G., Santoro, N. (2003). Solving the Robots Gathering Problem. In: Baeten, J.C.M., Lenstra, J.K., Parrow, J., Woeginger, G.J. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2719. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45061-0_90

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45061-0_90

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40493-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45061-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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