On the Computational Power of Energy-Constrained Mobile Robots: Algorithms and Cross-Model Analysis

Abstract

We consider distributed systems of identical autonomous computational entities, called robots, moving and operating in the plane in synchronous Look -Compute-Move (LCM ) cycles. The algorithmic capabilities of these systems have been extensively investigated in the literature under four distinct models (OBLOT , FSTA, FCOM, LUMI), each identifying different levels of memory persistence and communication capabilities of the robots. In spite of their differences, they all always assume that the robots have unlimited amounts of energy.