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Abstract: A mobile robot, represented by a point moving along a polygonal line in the plane, has to explore an unknown polygon and return to the starting point. The robot has a sensing area which can be a circle or a square centered at the robot. This area shifts while the robot moves inside the polygon, and at each point of its trajectory the robot “sees” (explores) all points for which the segment between the robot and the point is contained in the polygon and in the sensing area. We focus on two tasks: exploring the entire polygon and exploring only its boundary. We consider several scenarios: both shapes of the sensing area and the Manhattan and the Euclidean metrics. We focus on two quality benchmarks for exploration performance: optimality (the length of the trajectory of the robot is equal to that of the optimal robot knowing the polygon) and competitiveness (the length of the trajectory of the robot is at most a constant multiple of that of the optimal robot knowing the polygon). Most of our results concern rectilinear polygons. We show that optimal exploration is possible in only one scenario, that of exploring the boundary by a robot with square sensing area, starting at the boundary and using the Manhattan metric. For this case we give an optimal exploration algorithm, and in all other scenarios we prove impossibility of optimal exploration. For competitiveness the situation is more optimistic: we show a competitive exploration algorithm for rectilinear polygons whenever the sensing area is a square, for both tasks, regardless of the metric and of the starting point. Finally, we show a competitive exploration algorithm for arbitrary convex polygons, for both shapes of the sensing area, regardless of the metric and of the starting point. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We consider the problem of collectively delivering some package from a specified source to a designated target location in a graph, using multiple mobile agents. Each agent has limited energy which constrains the distance it can move. Hence multiple agents need to collaborate to move the package, each agent handing over the package to the next agent to carry it forward. Given the positions of the agents in the graph and their respective budgets, the problem of finding a feasible movement schedule for the agents can be challenging. We consider two variants of the problem: in non-returning delivery, the agents can stop anywhere; whereas in returning delivery, each agent needs to return to its starting location, a variant which has not been studied before. We first provide a polynomial-time algorithm for returning delivery on trees, which is in contrast to the known (weak) NP-hardness of the non-returning version. In addition, we give resource-augmented algorithms for returning delivery in general graphs. Finally, we give tight lower bounds on the required resource augmentation for both variants of the problem. In this sense, our results close the gap left by previous research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A collection of k mobile robots, initially placed at the origin of the plane, are searching for a stationary target. Each robot r i has a unit visibility range and can move no faster than its maximal speed v i , for i = 1 , 2 ,... , k. The robots can communicate between themselves. We consider two communication models: wireless, in which a message sent by a robot can reach all other robots immediately, regardless of their positions, and face-to-face (F2F), in which robots can only exchange information when they are meeting. We assume that up to f robots, where f < k , may be unreliable. We consider two models of unreliability: (1) crash faults, in which we deal with an absence of some of the robots' capabilities (communication, perception, motion, etc.), and (2) byzantine faults, in which the robots may be malicious in that they may execute a wrong algorithm (e.g., transmitting wrong information). The goal is to minimize the group search time, which is equal to the time of arrival to the target of the last reliable robot. This is expressed as a function of d , the distance from the origin to the target. Our proposed algorithms for crash faults are asymptotically optimal in d in both communication models. For byzantine faults, our algorithm is asymptotically optimal for the wireless model. In the F2F model, we propose two algorithms: the first one has a competitive ratio of 2, while the second algorithm works for k ≥ 2 f + 2 and is optimal when the robots speeds are all equal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]