Uniform robot relocation is hard in only two directions even without obstacles
Name
11047_2024_10007_ReferencePDF.pdf
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1.02 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Caballero, David
Cantu, Angel A.
Gomez, Timothy
Luchsinger, Austin
Schweller, Robert
Wylie, Tim
Date Issued
December 13, 2024
Journal
Natural Computing
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Citation
Caballero, D., Cantu, A.A., Gomez, T. et al. Uniform robot relocation is hard in only two directions even without obstacles. Nat Comput 24, 3–16 (2025).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Given n unit-sized robots contained within a square grid surrounded by four walls, we ask the question of whether it is possible to move a particular robot a to a specific grid location b by performing a sequence of global step operations in which all robots move one grid step in the same cardinal direction (if not blocked by a wall or other blocked robots). We show this problem is NP-complete when restricted to just two directions (south and west). This answers the simplest fundamental problem in uniform global unit tilt swarm robotics. We then consider a relaxed version of this problem called row relocation in which the goal is to move a robot a to a specific row regardless of its horizontal placement. We show that if asking about the first row of the square grid (bottom-most), then this version of the problem is solvable in polynomial time. Finally, we discuss several areas for future research and open problems.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-024-10007-4
