Connected Assembly and Reconfiguration by Finite Automata

Abstract

We consider methods for connected reconfigurations by finite automate in the so-called \emph{hybrid} or \emph{Robot-on-Tiles} model of programmable matter, in which a number of simple robots move on and rearrange an arrangement of passive tiles in the plane that form \emph{polyomino} shapes, making use of a supply of additional tiles that can be placed. We investigate the problem of reconfiguration under the constraint of maintaining connectivity of the tile arrangement; this reflects scenarios in which disconnected subarrangements may drift apart, e.g., in the absence of gravity in space. We show that two finite automata suffice to mark a bounding box, which can then be used as a stepping stone for more complex operations, such as scaling a tile arrangement by a given factor, rotating arrangements, or copying arrangements to a different location. We also describe an algorithm for scaling monotone polyominoes without the help of a bounding box.