234 research outputs found
Emergent velocity agreement in robot networks
In this paper we propose and prove correct a new self-stabilizing velocity
agreement (flocking) algorithm for oblivious and asynchronous robot networks.
Our algorithm allows a flock of uniform robots to follow a flock head emergent
during the computation whatever its direction in plane. Robots are
asynchronous, oblivious and do not share a common coordinate system. Our
solution includes three modules architectured as follows: creation of a common
coordinate system that also allows the emergence of a flock-head, setting up
the flock pattern and moving the flock. The novelty of our approach steams in
identifying the necessary conditions on the flock pattern placement and the
velocity of the flock-head (rotation, translation or speed) that allow the
flock to both follow the exact same head and to preserve the flock pattern.
Additionally, our system is self-healing and self-stabilizing. In the event of
the head leave (the leading robot disappears or is damaged and cannot be
recognized by the other robots) the flock agrees on another head and follows
the trajectory of the new head. Also, robots are oblivious (they do not recall
the result of their previous computations) and we make no assumption on their
initial position. The step complexity of our solution is O(n)
Iterative Approximate Consensus in the presence of Byzantine Link Failures
This paper explores the problem of reaching approximate consensus in
synchronous point-to-point networks, where each directed link of the underlying
communication graph represents a communication channel between a pair of nodes.
We adopt the transient Byzantine link failure model [15, 16], where an
omniscient adversary controls a subset of the directed communication links, but
the nodes are assumed to be fault-free.
Recent work has addressed the problem of reaching approximate consen- sus in
incomplete graphs with Byzantine nodes using a restricted class of iterative
algorithms that maintain only a small amount of memory across iterations [22,
21, 23, 12]. However, to the best of our knowledge, we are the first to
consider approximate consensus in the presence of Byzan- tine links. We extend
our past work that provided exact characterization of graphs in which the
iterative approximate consensus problem in the presence of Byzantine node
failures is solvable [22, 21]. In particular, we prove a tight necessary and
sufficient condition on the underlying com- munication graph for the existence
of iterative approximate consensus algorithms under transient Byzantine link
model. The condition answers (part of) the open problem stated in [16].Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1202.609
Achieving Small World Properties using Bio-Inspired Techniques in Wireless Networks
It is highly desirable and challenging for a wireless ad hoc network to have
self-organization properties in order to achieve network wide characteristics.
Studies have shown that Small World properties, primarily low average path
length and high clustering coefficient, are desired properties for networks in
general. However, due to the spatial nature of the wireless networks, achieving
small world properties remains highly challenging. Studies also show that,
wireless ad hoc networks with small world properties show a degree distribution
that lies between geometric and power law. In this paper, we show that in a
wireless ad hoc network with non-uniform node density with only local
information, we can significantly reduce the average path length and retain the
clustering coefficient. To achieve our goal, our algorithm first identifies
logical regions using Lateral Inhibition technique, then identifies the nodes
that beamform and finally the beam properties using Flocking. We use Lateral
Inhibition and Flocking because they enable us to use local state information
as opposed to other techniques. We support our work with simulation results and
analysis, which show that a reduction of up to 40% can be achieved for a
high-density network. We also show the effect of hopcount used to create
regions on average path length, clustering coefficient and connectivity.Comment: Accepted for publication: Special Issue on Security and Performance
of Networks and Clouds (The Computer Journal
Swarm shape manipulation through connection control
The control of a large swarm of distributed agents is a well known challenge within the study of unmanned autonomous systems. However, it also presents many new opportunities. The advantages of operating a swarm through distributed means has been assessed in the literature for efficiency from both operational and economical aspects; practically as the number of agents increases, distributed control is favoured over centralised control, as it can reduce agent computational costs and increase robustness on the swarm. Distributed architectures, however, can present the drawback of requiring knowledge of the whole swarm state, therefore limiting the scalability of the swarm. In this paper a strategy is presented to address the challenges of distributed architectures, changing the way in which the swarm shape is controlled and providing a step towards verifiable swarm behaviour, achieving new configurations, while saving communication and computation resources. Instead of applying change at agent level (e.g. modify its guidance law), the sensing of the agents is addressed to a portion of agents, differentially driving their behaviour. This strategy is applied for swarms controlled by artificial potential functions which would ordinarily require global knowledge and all-to-all interactions. Limiting the agents' knowledge is proposed for the first time in this work as a methodology rather than obstacle to obtain desired swarm behaviour
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