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Symposium on Self-Stabilizing Systems

SSS 2007: Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems pp 52–66Cite as

Stabilizing Flocking Via Leader Election in Robot Networks

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 4838))

Abstract

Flocking is the ability of a group of robots to follow a leader or head whenever it moves in a plane (two dimensional Cartesian space). In this paper we propose and prove correct an architecture for a self-organizing and stabilizing flocking system. Contrary to the existing work on this topic our flocking architecture does not rely on the existence of a specific leader a priori known to every robot in the network. In our approach robots are uniform, start in an arbitrary configuration and the head of the group is elected via algorithmic tools.

Our contribution is threefold. First, we propose novel probabilistic solutions for leader election in asynchronous settings under bounded schedulers. Additionally, we prove the impossibility of deterministic leader election when robots have no common coordinates and start in an arbitrary configuration. Secondly, we propose a collision free deterministic algorithm for circle formation designed for asynchronous networks. Thirdly, we propose a deterministic flocking algorithm totally independent of the existence of an a priori known leader. The proposed algorithm also works in asynchronous networks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), LIP6, CNRS, INRIA, France

    Davide Canepa & Maria Gradinariu Potop-Butucaru

Authors
  1. Davide Canepa
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  2. Maria Gradinariu Potop-Butucaru
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Toshimitsu Masuzawa Sébastien Tixeuil

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Canepa, D., Potop-Butucaru, M.G. (2007). Stabilizing Flocking Via Leader Election in Robot Networks. In: Masuzawa, T., Tixeuil, S. (eds) Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems. SSS 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4838. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76627-8_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-76627-8_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-76626-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-76627-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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