Abstract
This paper studies the flocking problem, where mobile robots group to form a desired pattern and move together while maintaining that formation. Unlike previous studies of the problem, we consider a system of mobile robots in which a number of them may possibly fail by crashing. Our algorithm ensures that the crash of faulty robots does not bring the formation to a permanent stop, and that the correct robots are thus eventually allowed to reorganize and continue moving together. Furthermore, the algorithm makes no assumption on the relative speeds at which the robots can move.
The algorithm relies on the assumption that robots’ activations follow a k-bounded asynchronous scheduler, in the sense that the beginning and end of activations are not synchronized across robots (asynchronous), and that while the slowest robot is activated once, the fastest robot is activated at most k times (k-bounded).
The proposed algorithm is made of three parts. First, appropriate restrictions on the movements of the robots make it possible to agree on a common ranking of the robots. Second, based on the ranking and the k-bounded scheduler, robots can eventually detect any robot that has crashed, and thus trigger a reorganization of the robots. Finally, the third part of the algorithm ensures that the robots move together while keeping an approximation of a regular polygon, while also ensuring the necessary restrictions on their movement.
Work supported by MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) (Nr. 18680007).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Daigle, M.J., Koutsoukos, X.D., Biswas, G.: Distributed diagnosis in formations of mobile robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics 23(2), 353–369 (2007)
Coble, J., Cook, D.: Fault tolerant coordination of robot teams, citeseer.ist.psu.edu/coble98fault.html
Gervasi, V., Prencipe, G.: Coordination without communication: the Case of the Flocking Problem. Discrete Applied Mathematics 143(1-3), 203–223 (2004)
Hayes, A.T., Dormiani-Tabatabaei, P.: Self-organized flocking with agent failure: Off-line optimization and demonstration with real robots. In: Proc. IEEE Intl. Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 4, pp. 3900–3905 (2002)
Saber, R.O., Murray, R.M.: Flocking with Obstacle Avoidance: Cooperation with Limited Communication in Mobile Networks. In: Proc. 42nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, pp. 2022–2028 (2003)
Canepa, D., Potop-Butucaru, M.G.: Stabilizing flocking via leader election in robot networks. In: Masuzawa, T., Tixeuil, S. (eds.) SSS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4838, pp. 52–66. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Défago, X., Gradinariu, M., Messika, S., Raipin-Parvédy, P.: Fault-tolerant and self-stabilizing mobile robots gathering. In: Dolev, S. (ed.) DISC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4167, pp. 46–60. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Prencipe, G.: CORDA: Distributed Coordination of a Set of Autonomous Mobile Robots. In: Proc. European Research Seminar on Advances in Distributed Systems, pp. 185–190 (2001)
Flocchini, P., Prencipe, G., Santoro, N., Widmayer, P.: Pattern Formation by Autonomous Robots Without Chirality. In: Proc. 8th Intl. Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity (SIROCCO 2001), pp. 147–162 (2001)
Gervasi, V., Prencipe, G.: Flocking by A Set of Autonomous Mobile Robots. Technical Report, Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Pisa, Italy, TR-01-24 (2001)
Reynolds, C.W.: Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Distributed Behavioral Model. Journal of Computer Graphics 21(1), 79–98 (1987)
Brogan, D.C., Hodgins, J.K.: Group Behaviors for Systems with Significant Dynamics. Autonomous Robots Journal 4, 137–153 (1997)
John, T., Yuhai, T.: Flocks, Herds, and Schools: A Quantitative Theory of Flocking. Physical Review Journal 58(4), 4828–4858 (1998)
Yamaguchi, H., Beni, G.: Distributed Autonomous Formation Control of Mobile Robot Groups by Swarm-based Pattern Generation. In: Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 1996), pp. 141–155 (1996)
Dieudonné, Y., Petit, F.: A Scatter of Weak Robots. Technical Report, LARIA, CNRS, France, RR07-10 (2007)
Chandra, T.D., Toueg, S.: Unreliable Failure Detectors for Reliable Distributed Systems. Journal of the ACM 43(2), 225–267 (1996)
Schreiner, K.: NASA’s JPL Nanorover Outposts Project Develops Colony of Solar-powered Nanorovers. IEEE DS Online 3(2) (2001)
Souissi, S., Yang, Y., Défago, X.: Fault-tolerant Flocking in a k-bounded Asynchronous System. Technical Report, JAIST, Japan, IS-RR-2008-004 (2008)
Konolige, K., Ortiz, C., Vincent, R., Agno, A., Eriksen, M., Limketkai, B., Lewis, M., Briesemeister, L., Ruspini, E., Fox, O., Stewart, J., Ko, B., Guibas, L.: CENTIBOTS: Large-Scale Robot Teams. Journal of Multi-Robot Systems: From Swarms to Intelligent Autonoma (2003)
Bellur, B.R., Lewis, M.G., Templin, F.L.: An Ad-hoc Network for Teams of Autonomous Vehicles. In: Proc. 1st IEEE Symp. on Autonomous Intelligent Networks and Systems (2002)
Jennings, J.S., Whelan, G., Evans, W.F.: Cooperative Search and Rescue with a Team of Mobile Robots. In: Proc. 8th Intl. Conference on Advanced Robotics, pp. 193–200 (1997)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Souissi, S., Yang, Y., Défago, X. (2008). Fault-Tolerant Flocking in a k-Bounded Asynchronous System. 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_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92221-6_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-92220-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-92221-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)