Aggregation and localization of simple robots in curved environments

Abstract This paper is about the closely-related problems of localization and aggregation for extremely simple robots, for which the only available action is to move in a given direction as far as the geometry of the environment allows. Such problems may arise, for example, in biomedical applications, wherein a large group of tiny robots moves in response to a shared external stimulus. Specifically, we extend the prior work on these kinds of problems presenting two algorithms for localization in environments with curved (rather than polygonal) boundaries and under low-friction models of interaction with the environment boundaries. We present both simulations and physical demonstrations to validate the approach.

@inproceedings{MoaMon+20,
  author = {Rachel Moan and Victor Montano and Aaron Becker and Jason M.
            O'Kane},
  booktitle = {Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and
               Automation},
  title = {Aggregation and localization of simple robots in curved
           environments},
  year = {2020}
}