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Algorithms for Rapidly Dispersing Robot Swarms in Unknown Environments

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Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics V

Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics ((STAR,volume 7))

Abstract

We develop and analyze algorithms for dispersing a swarm of primitive robots in an unknown environment, R. The primary objective is to minimize the makespan, that is, the time to fill the entire region. An environment is composed of pixels that form a connected subset of the integer grid. There is at most one robot per pixel and robots move horizontally or vertically at unit speed. Robots enter R by means of k ≥ 1 door pixels. Robots are primitive finite automata, only having local communication, local sensors, and a constant-sized memory.

We first give algorithms for the single-door case (i.e., k = 1), analyzing the algorithms both theoretically and experimentally. We prove that our algorithms have optimal makespan 2A − 1, where A is the area of R.

We next give an algorithm for the multi-door case (k ≥ 1), based on a wall-following version of the leader-follower strategy. We prove that our strategy is O(log(k + l))-competitive, and that this bound is tight for our strategy and other related strategies.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Tien-Ruey Hsiang, Esther M. Arkin, Michael A. Bender & Joseph S. B. Mitchell

  2. TU Braunschweig, 38106, Braunschweig, Germany

    Sándor P. Fekete

Authors
  1. Tien-Ruey Hsiang
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  2. Esther M. Arkin
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  3. Michael A. Bender
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  4. Sándor P. Fekete
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  5. Joseph S. B. Mitchell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. INRIA, 2004 Route des Lucioles, 06902, Sophia-Antipolis, France

    Jean-Daniel Boissonnat

  2. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, California Inst. of Technology, East California Boulevard 12000, 91125, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Joel Burdick

  3. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 4189 Etcheverry Hall, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Ken Goldberg

  4. Beckman Inst., University of Illinois, North Matthews Avenue 405, 61801, Urbana, IL, USA

    Seth Hutchinson

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hsiang, TR., Arkin, E.M., Bender, M.A., Fekete, S.P., Mitchell, J.S.B. (2004). Algorithms for Rapidly Dispersing Robot Swarms in Unknown Environments. In: Boissonnat, JD., Burdick, J., Goldberg, K., Hutchinson, S. (eds) Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics V. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45058-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45058-0_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-07341-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45058-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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