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Wireless Networking Based Control pp 175–201Cite as

Counting and Rendezvous: Two Applications of Distributed Consensus in Robotics

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Abstract

Consensus protocols have been widely studied in recent years in the control community. We discuss two applications of consensus protocols in robotics: counting and rendezvous. For counting, the main issue is how each agent can estimate the total number of robots in a network by using limited communications with its neighbors. For rendezvous, the aim is to make the agents converge to a common meeting point, again by only allowing them to communicate with immediate neighbors. We present a formal analysis of the proposed algorithms and prove their convergence properties by relying on the theory of consensus protocols.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is the problem when the equilibrium position x ⋆ has the same sum as the initial vector x(0).

  2. 2.

    The reference to a global coordinate frame Q will be relaxed in Sect. 8.4.2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Miloš Žefran

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  1. Carlos H. Caicedo-Núñez
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  2. Miloš Žefran
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Correspondence to Miloš Žefran .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Electrical and Computer Eng., University of Illinois, South Morgan Street 851, Chicago, 60607, Illinois, USA

    Sudip K. Mazumder

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Caicedo-Núñez, C.H., Žefran, M. (2011). Counting and Rendezvous: Two Applications of Distributed Consensus in Robotics. In: Mazumder, S. (eds) Wireless Networking Based Control. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7393-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7393-1_8

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