Distributed Computing by Oblivious Mobile Robots

Paola Flocchini received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Milan, Italy, in 1995. She held positions at the Universite de Montreal and Universite du Quebec en Outaouais before joining the University of Ottawa in 1999. She is Professor and University Re search Chair in Distributed Computing at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (University of Ottawa). Her main research interests are in distributed algorithms, distributed comput ing, algorithms for mobile agents and autonomous robots, and cellular automata. Giuseppe Prencipe has received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2002 from the University of Pisa, Italy, with a thesis on distributed mobile robots. After his Ph.D. studies, he has continued his investi gations on distributed mobile computing as a Visiting Researcher in Ottawa, at Carleton University and at the University of Ottawa, and in Zurich at ETH. He has been involved in the PC of several distributed computing conferences, and has been PC co-Chair of SIROCCO in 2007. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Pisa. His main research interests are distributed algorithms, distributed computing, mobile agents computing, and design of algorithms for autonomous mobile robots Nicola Santoro is Distinguished Research Professor of Computer Sci ence at Carleton University. Initially interested in philosophy, he is one of the first computer science graduates in Italy (Pisa'74), discovering the beauty of algorithms and data structures. During his Ph.D. on in formation structure (Waterloo '79), he discovers the net (then called ARPANET) and email, and starts thinking in distributed terms. He contributes seminal papers focusing on the algorithmic aspects and starts some of the main theoretical conferences in the field (PODC, DISC, SIROCCO). He is the author of the book Design and Analysis of Dis tributed Algorithms (Wiley 2007). In 2010 he has been awarded the SIROCCO Prize for Innovation in Distributed Computing. His current research interests include distributed computations by mobile entities (agents, robots, sensors) and in time-varying networks (dynamic, delay-tolerant, vehicular).

Introduction.- Computational Models.- Gathering and Convergence.- Pattern Formation.- Scatterings and Coverings.- Flocking.- Other Directions.