Compatibility of convergence algorithms for autonomous mobile robots

Abstract

We investigate autonomous mobile robots in the Euclidean plane. A robot has a function called target function to decide the destination from the robots' positions. Robots may have different target functions. If the robots whose target functions are chosen from a set $\Phi$ of target functions always solve a problem $\Pi$, we say that $\Phi$ is compatible with respect to $\Pi$. If $\Phi$ is compatible with respect to $\Pi$, every target function $\phi \in \Phi$ is an algorithm for $\Pi$. Even if both $\phi$ and $\phi'$ are algorithms for $\Pi$, $\{ \phi, \phi' \}$ may not be compatible with respect to $\Pi$. From the view point of compatibility, we investigate the convergence, the fault tolerant ($n,f$)-convergence (FC($f$)), the fault tolerant ($n,f$)-convergence to $f$ points (FC($f$)-PO), the fault tolerant ($n,f$)-convergence to a convex $f$-gon (FC($f$)-CP), and the gathering problems, assuming crash failures. Obtained results classify these problems into three groups: The convergence, FC(1), FC(1)-PO, and FC($f$)-CP compose the first group: Every set of target functions which always shrink the convex hull of a configuration is compatible. The second group is composed of the gathering and FC($f$)-PO for $f \geq 2$: No set of target functions which always shrink the convex hull of a configuration is compatible. The third group, FC($f$) for $f \geq 2$, is placed in between. Thus, FC(1) and FC(2), FC(1)-PO and FC(2)-PO, and FC(2) and FC(2)-PO are respectively in different groups, despite that FC(1) and FC(1)-PO are in the first group.