DiRAC - Distributed Robot Awareness and Consensus

Abstract

DiRAC is a scalable, distributed framework designed to enable efficient task assignment and path planning in very large robotic swarms. It introduces a novel zone-partitioned architecture with dynamically elected leaders and a tick-synchronized consensus protocol that yields strong consistency and deterministic outcomes. For path planning, DiRAC uses a novel algorithm, a force-based decentralized planner for real-time collision resolution. Validated within ROS 2 middleware through preliminary simulation, DiRAC demonstrates architectural scalability and modular efficiency in simulated warehouse environments, laying the groundwork for real-world deployment in large-scale industrial and logistics domains.