Minimal Deterministic Traversable Vertex Labelling of Infinite Square Grid Graph

Abstract

Automata walking on graphs are a mathematical formalization of autonomous mobile agents with limited memory operating in discrete environments. Under this model a broad area of studies of the behaviour of automata in labyrinths arose and intensively developing last decades (a labyrinth is an embedded directed graph of special form). Research in this regard received a wide range of applications, for example, in the problems of image analysis and navigation of mobile robots. Automata operating in labyrinths can distinguish directions, that is, they have a compass. This paper deals with the problem of constructing square grid graph vertex labelling thanks to which a finite automaton without a compass can walk on graph in any arbitrary direction. The automaton looking over neighbourhood of the current vertex and may travel to some neighbouring vertex selected by its label. In this paper, we propose a minimal deterministic traversable vertex labelling that satisfies the required property. A labelling is said to be deterministic if all vertices in closed neighbourhood of every vertex have different labels. In previous works we have proved that minimal deterministic traversable vertex labelling of square grid graph uses labels of five different types. In this paper we prove that a collective of one automaton and three pebbles can construct this labelling on initially unlabelled infinite square grid graph. We consider pebbles as automata of the simplest form, whose positions are completely determined by the remaining automata of the collective.