On the synthesis of mobile robots algorithms: The case of ring gathering

Abstract

Recent advances in Distributed Computing highlight models and algorithms for autonomous swarms of mobile robots that self-organize and cooperate to solve global objectives. The overwhelming majority of works so far considers handmade algorithms and correctness proofs. This paper is the first to propose a formal framework to automatically design distributed algorithms that are dedicated to autonomous mobile robots evolving in a discrete space. As a case study, we consider the problem of gathering all robots at a particular location, not known beforehand. Our contribution is threefold. First, we propose an encoding of the gathering problem as a reachability game. Then, we automatically generate an optimal distributed algorithm for three robots evolving on a fixed size uniform ring. Finally, we prove by induction that the generated algorithm is also correct for any ring size except when an impossibility result holds (that is, when the number of robots divides the ring size).