In this paper we prove several generalizations of the Banach fixed point theorem for partial metric spaces (in the sense of O'Neill) given in [14], obtaining as a particular case of our results the Banach fixed point theorem of Matthews ([12]), and some well-known classical fixed point theorems when the partial metric is, in fact, a metric.2000 AMS Classification: 54H25, 54E50, 54E99, 68Q55.

Given a partial metric space (X, p), we use (BX, ⊑dp) to denote the poset of formal balls of the associated quasi-metric space (X, dp). We obtain characterisations of complete partial metric spaces and sup-separable complete partial metric spaces in terms of domain-theoretic properties of (BX, ⊑dp). In particular, we prove that a partial metric space (X, p) is complete if and only if the poset (BX, ⊑dp) is a domain. Furthermore, for any complete partial metric space (X, p), we construct a Smyth complete quasi-metric q on BX that extends the quasi-metric dp such that both the Scott topology and the partial order ⊑dp are induced by q. This is done using the partial quasi-metric concept recently introduced and discussed by H. P. Künzi, H. Pajoohesh and M. P. Schellekens (Künzi et al. 2006). Our approach, which is inspired by methods due to A. Edalat and R. Heckmann (Edalat and Heckmann 1998), generalises to partial metric spaces the constructions given by R. Heckmann (Heckmann 1999) and J. J. M. M. Rutten (Rutten 1998) for metric spaces.

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We characterise those quasi-metric spaces (X, d) whose poset BX of formal balls satisfies the condition (*) From this characterisation, we then deduce that a quasi-metric space (X, d) is Smyth-complete if and only if BX is a dcpo satisfying condition (*). We also give characterisations in terms of formal balls for sequentially Yoneda complete quasi-metric spaces and for Yoneda complete T1 quasi-metric spaces. Finally, we discuss several properties of the Heckmann quasi-metric on the formal balls of any quasi-metric space.

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Multi-robot task allocation is one of the main problems to address in order to design a multi-robot system, very especially when robots form coalitions that must carry out tasks before a deadline. A lot of factors affect the performance of these systems and among them, this paper is focused on the physical interference effect, produced when two or more robots want to access the same point simultaneously. To our best knowledge, this paper presents the first formal description of multi-robot task allocation that includes a model of interference. Thanks to this description, the complexity of the allocation problem is analyzed. Moreover, the main contribution of this paper is to provide the conditions under which the optimal solution of the aforementioned allocation problem can be obtained solving an integer linear problem. The optimal results are compared to previous allocation algorithms already proposed by the first two authors of this paper and with a new method proposed in this paper. The results obtained show how the new task allocation algorithms reach up more than an 80% of the median of the optimal solution, outperforming previous auction algorithms with a huge reduction of the execution time.

In this paper, we continue the study of contractive conditions for mappings in complete partial metric spaces. Concretely, we present fixed point results for weakly contractive and weakly Kannan mappings in such a way that the classical metric counterpart results are retrieved as a particular case. Special attention to the cyclical case is paid. Moreover, the well-posedness of the fixed point problem associated to weakly (cyclic) contractive and weakly (cyclic) Kannan mappings is discussed, and it is shown that these contractive mappings are both good Picard operators and special good Picard operators.