BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
ID:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR2003-462
ENTRY:: June 18, 2003
ORGANIZATION:: Dartmouth College, Computer Science
TITLE:: Distributed planning and control for modular robots with unit-compressible modules
TYPE:: Technical Report (paper)
REVISION:: 1
AUTHOR:: Butler, Zack
AUTHOR:: Rus, Daniela
DATE:: June 2003
RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, email <reports@cs.dartmouth.edu>
RETRIEVAL:: For a paper copy, write to
       Technical Report Librarian
       Department of Computer Science
       Dartmouth College
       6211 Sudikoff Laboratory
       Hanover, NH 03755-3510
       USA
RETRIEVAL:: Compressed Postscript at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2003-462.ps.Z
RETRIEVAL:: PDF at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2003-462.pdf
ABSTRACT:: 
Self-reconfigurable robots are versatile systems consisting of large
numbers of independent modules.  Effective use of these systems
requires parallel actuation and planning, both for efficiency and
independence from a central controller.  This paper presents the
PacMan algorithm, a technique for distributed actuation and planning
for systems with two- or three-dimensional unit-compressible modules.
We give two versions of the algorithm along with correctness analysis.
We also analyze the parallel actuation capability of the algorithm,
showing that it will not deadlock and will avoid disconnecting the
robot.  We have implemented PacMan on the Crystal robot, a hardware
system developed in our lab, and we present experiments and discuss
the feasibility of large-scale implementation.
END:: ncstrl.dartmouthcs//TR2003-462