1,555 research outputs found
Self-stabilizing virtual synchrony
Virtual synchrony (VS) is an important abstraction that is proven to be extremely useful when implemented over asynchronous, typically large, message-passing distributed systems. Fault tolerant design is critical for the success of such implementations since large distributed systems can be highly available as long as they do not depend on the full operational status of every system participant. Self-stabilizing systems can tolerate transient faults that drive the system to an arbitrary unpredictable configuration. Such systems automatically regain consistency from any such configuration, and then produce the desired system behavior ensuring it for practically infinite number of successive steps, e.g., 264 steps. We present a new multi-purpose self-stabilizing counter algorithm establishing an efficient practically unbounded counter, that can directly yield a self-stabilizing Multiple-Writer Multiple-Reader (MWMR) register emulation. We use our counter algorithm, together with a selfstabilizing group membership and a self-stabilizing multicast service to devise the first practically stabilizing VS algorithm and a self-stabilizing VS-based emulation of state machine replication (SMR). As we base the SMR implementation on VS, rather than consensus, the system progresses in more extreme asynchronous settings in relation to consensusbased SMR
Brief Announcement: Self-stabilizing Virtual Synchrony
International audienceSystems satisfying the Virtual Synchrony (VS) [2] property provide message multicast and group membership services in which all system events, group membership changes, and incoming messages, are delivered in the same order. VS is an important abstraction, proven to be extremely useful when implemented over asynchronous, typically large-scale, message-passing distributed systems, as it simplifies the design of distributed applications, e.g., State Machine Replication (SMR). The VS property ensures that two or more processors that participate in two consecutive communicating groups should have delivered the same messages. Self-stabilizing systems [1,3] can tolerate transient faults that drive the system to an unpredicted arbitrary configuration. Such sys- tems automatically regain consistency from any such configuration, and then produce the desired system behavior ensuring it for a practically infinite number of successive steps, e.g., 264 steps. We present the first, to our knowledge, self-stabilizing virtual synchrony algorithm
Virtual Constraints and Hybrid Zero Dynamics for Realizing Underactuated Bipedal Locomotion
Underactuation is ubiquitous in human locomotion and should be ubiquitous in
bipedal robotic locomotion as well. This chapter presents a coherent theory for
the design of feedback controllers that achieve stable walking gaits in
underactuated bipedal robots. Two fundamental tools are introduced, virtual
constraints and hybrid zero dynamics. Virtual constraints are relations on the
state variables of a mechanical model that are imposed through a time-invariant
feedback controller. One of their roles is to synchronize the robot's joints to
an internal gait phasing variable. A second role is to induce a low dimensional
system, the zero dynamics, that captures the underactuated aspects of a robot's
model, without any approximations. To enhance intuition, the relation between
physical constraints and virtual constraints is first established. From here,
the hybrid zero dynamics of an underactuated bipedal model is developed, and
its fundamental role in the design of asymptotically stable walking motions is
established. The chapter includes numerous references to robots on which the
highlighted techniques have been implemented.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, bookchapte
Nonlinear Model Reduction and Decentralized Control of Tethered Formation Flight by Oscillation Synchronization
This paper describes a fully decentralized nonlinear control law for spinning tethered formation flight, based on exploiting geometric symmetries to reduce the original nonlinear dynamics into simpler stable dynamics. Motivated by oscillation synchronization in biological systems, we use contraction theory to prove that a control law stabilizing a single-tethered spacecraft can also stabilize arbitrary large circular arrays of spacecraft, as well as the three inline configuration. The convergence result is global and exponential. Numerical simulations and experimental results using the SPHERES testbed validate the
exponential stability of the tethered formation arrays by implementing a tracking control law derived from the reduced dynamics
Distributed Computing in the Asynchronous LOCAL model
The LOCAL model is among the main models for studying locality in the
framework of distributed network computing. This model is however subject to
pertinent criticisms, including the facts that all nodes wake up
simultaneously, perform in lock steps, and are failure-free. We show that
relaxing these hypotheses to some extent does not hurt local computing. In
particular, we show that, for any construction task associated to a locally
checkable labeling (LCL), if is solvable in rounds in the LOCAL model,
then remains solvable in rounds in the asynchronous LOCAL model.
This improves the result by Casta\~neda et al. [SSS 2016], which was restricted
to 3-coloring the rings. More generally, the main contribution of this paper is
to show that, perhaps surprisingly, asynchrony and failures in the computations
do not restrict the power of the LOCAL model, as long as the communications
remain synchronous and failure-free
Chimera states: Coexistence of coherence and incoherence in networks of coupled oscillators
A chimera state is a spatio-temporal pattern in a network of identical
coupled oscillators in which synchronous and asynchronous oscillation coexist.
This state of broken symmetry, which usually coexists with a stable spatially
symmetric state, has intrigued the nonlinear dynamics community since its
discovery in the early 2000s. Recent experiments have led to increasing
interest in the origin and dynamics of these states. Here we review the history
of research on chimera states and highlight major advances in understanding
their behaviour.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figure
Short Conduction Delays Cause Inhibition Rather than Excitation to Favor Synchrony in Hybrid Neuronal Networks of the Entorhinal Cortex
How stable synchrony in neuronal networks is sustained in the presence of conduction delays is an open question. The Dynamic Clamp was used to measure phase resetting curves (PRCs) for entorhinal cortical cells, and then to construct networks of two such neurons. PRCs were in general Type I (all advances or all delays) or weakly type II with a small region at early phases with the opposite type of resetting. We used previously developed theoretical methods based on PRCs under the assumption of pulsatile coupling to predict the delays that synchronize these hybrid circuits. For excitatory coupling, synchrony was predicted and observed only with no delay and for delays greater than half a network period that cause each neuron to receive an input late in its firing cycle and almost immediately fire an action potential. Synchronization for these long delays was surprisingly tight and robust to the noise and heterogeneity inherent in a biological system. In contrast to excitatory coupling, inhibitory coupling led to antiphase for no delay, very short delays and delays close to a network period, but to near-synchrony for a wide range of relatively short delays. PRC-based methods show that conduction delays can stabilize synchrony in several ways, including neutralizing a discontinuity introduced by strong inhibition, favoring synchrony in the case of noisy bistability, and avoiding an initial destabilizing region of a weakly type II PRC. PRCs can identify optimal conduction delays favoring synchronization at a given frequency, and also predict robustness to noise and heterogeneity
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