A distributed algorithm for circle formation by multiple mobile robots

Abstract

This paper suggests a distributed, decentralized approach for positioning multiple mobile robots in a circular formation in a semi synchronous setting. The problem of the circle formation with multiple robots which are arbitrarily placed on a 2D plane requires all robots to be uniformly positioned (i.e., at an equal angular distance of 2Π/N, where N = number of robots) on the circle circumference. The suggested approach uses explicit inter robot communication by way of message passing and forms a token ring based network. It uses the distributed solution of one of the classical synchronization problem often used in distributed systems, the Dining Philosopher Problem, for the robots to synchronize during their activation cycles.

Positioning multiple mobile robots for geometric pattern formation: An empirical analysis

“…Subsequently one more work [23] has appeared where the authors have simulated a part of the algorithm presented in [22] and have given quantifiable measure in terms of the total number activation steps for robot team in achieving convergence. A more recent algorithm which is suggested in [29] stands out to be a practically feasible approach. In all of these works the robots are considered as mobile processors with a sensor to detect instantaneous position of all robots.…”

“…Uniform Circle Formation algorithm proposed in [22] is implemented in [29] under the mode of explicit communication. The basic assumptions considered here are specified in Table-1.…”

“…Also none of these works have given any quantitative measures on the performance of the robot team i.e., we cannot say anything about convergence time, the distance travelled by the robots, computational complexity in terms of amount of decision making. In the next section we present a detailed discussion of two different algorithms presented in [22,23,29].…”

“…Section-II presents the literature review and brief analysis of several research works on pattern formation problem. Section-III presents a discussion on the two distributed algorithms [22,23,29]. A detailed description of the experimental setup is included in Section-IV.…”

“…We have established an experimental test bench for control and monitoring of multiple mobile robots. Two distributed algorithm for circle formation [22,23,29] by a team of mobile robots have been implemented, wherein we have dropped some of their impractical assumptions. We have compared the efficiency of these two algorithms for circle formation using five e-puck robots and determined that the algorithm suggested in [29] is more efficient than the one which is presented in [22,23].…”