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Move and Time Optimal Arbitrary Pattern Formation by Asynchronous Robots on Infinite Grid

Abstract

The \textsc{Arbitrary Pattern Formation} (\textsc{Apf}) is a widely studied in distributed computing for swarm robots. This problem asks to design a distributed algorithm that allows a team of identical, autonomous mobile robots to form any arbitrary pattern given as input. This paper considers that the robots are operating on a two-dimensional infinite grid. Robots are initially positioned on distinct grid points forming an asymmetric configuration (no two robots have the same snapshot). They operate under a fully asynchronous scheduler and do not have any access to a global coordinate system, but they will align the axes of their local coordinate systems along the grid lines. The previous work dealing with \textsc{Apf} problem solved it in O(D2k)O(\mathcal{D}^2k) robot movements under similar conditions, where D\mathcal{D} is the side of the smallest square that can contain both initial and target configuration and, kk is the number of robots. Let D=max{D,k}\mathcal{D}'=\max\{\mathcal{D},k\}. This paper presents two algorithms of \textsc{Apf} on an infinite grid. The first algorithm solves the \textsc{Apf} problem using O(D)O(\mathcal{D}') asymptotically move optimal. The second algorithm solves the \textsc{Apf} problem in O(D)O(\mathcal{D}') epochs, which we show is asymptotically optimal.

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