Distributed consensus for metamorphic systems using a gossip algorithm for CAT(0) metric spaces
Résumé
We present an application of distributed consensus algorithms to metamorphic systems. A metamorphic system is a set of identical units that can self-assemble to form a rigid structure. For instance, one can think of a robotic arm composed of multiple links connected by joints. The system can change its shape in order to adapt to different environments via reconfiguration of its constituting units. We assume in this work that several metamorphic systems form a network: two systems are connected whenever they are able to communicate with each other. The aim of this paper is to propose a distributed algorithm that synchronizes all of the systems in the network. Synchronizing means that all of the systems should end up having the same configuration. This aim is achieved in two steps: (i) we cast the problem as a consensus problem on a metric space; and (ii) we use a recent distributed consensus algorithm that only makes use of metrical notions