A Shape-Shifting Distributed Meta-algorithm for Modular Robots

Novel platforms of modular robot systems have been developed with important applications in safety, transportation and sensing domains. In such systems, modular robots are able to change their organization in order to obtain different shapes. The conception of distributed programs allowing the "optimal" reorganization of a set of robots into a specific shape appears as a very challenging problem. In this paper we present an original distributed meta-algorithm for micro-robots shape-shifting problem. We show that this meta-algorithm, described as a general functioning schema, presents a good framework to easily conceive distributed algorithms for shape-shifting problems. We also prove the facility to instantiate the algorithm for special target shapes and we give an adaptation of the algorithm to reach any horizontally convex form. The presented meta-algorithm presents two main advantages: first, there is no need to exact positioning of the robots and secondly, the memory storage and communication requirements are significantly reduced.