Distributed computing problems in cellular robotic systems

Cellular robotic systems (CRS) employ a large number of robots operating in cellular spaces under distributed control. In this paper, the relationship between CRS and distributed computing is discussed. Two problems encountered in designing pattern generation protocols for CRS, the n-way intersection problem and the knot detection problem, are related to distributed mutual exclusion problem and distributed deadlock detection problem, respectively. Solutions to these two problems, derived from their counterparts in distributed computing, are presented in the CRS context. >