Algorithms for mobile agents, autonomous robots, and sensor networks

自主移动实体的研究领域源于人工智能、机器人技术和软件工程等多种领域，重点关注能够在网络（例如，移动软件代理）或地形（例如，自主机器人或移动传感器）上移动的计算实体。人们对这一领域的兴趣迅速增长。一方面，在从Internet到数据网格的网络环境中进行计算时，移动代理的使用变得越来越流行，这既是一种理论范例，也是一种系统支持的编程平台。另一方面，考虑到与移动传感器网络的联系，自主机器人的理论和算法研究现在变得更加重要。从计算和算法的角度来看，对移动代理、自主机器人（尤其是移动传感器网络）的研究仍处于非常早期的阶段。理论框架是模糊的，有时缺失，算法技术和工具是原始的。为了开始弥补这种缺乏理论和算法背景，本项目侧重于移动实体系统中出现的计算和算法问题。主要目标是：更好地理解移动实体的计算能力（即，实体可以执行什么任务，在什么条件下，以什么代价），并设计有效的算法来解决基本的协调、控制和安全问题。计算和算法任务也将在环境中可能存在不安全组件（故障，有害元素）的情况下进行研究。特别是，在移动代理的情况下，该项目考虑到一些主机是有害的（例如，主机攻击），以及当一个不受欢迎的入侵者在网络中移动时(例如。（间谍软件或病毒）。在第一种情况下，代理的目标是定位有害宿主，尽量不被它破坏，在第二种情况下，代理的目标是捕获入侵者。就机器人而言，该项目侧重于可计算性问题和协调算法的设计，在机器人能力的不同假设下；特别强调和重点是在移动传感器网络的背景下的应用。

Originating from fields as diverse as AI, robotics, and software engineering,  the research area on  autonomous mobile  entities  focuses on computational entities capable of moving over  a network (e.g., mobile software agents) or a terrain (e.g., autonomous robots or mobile sensors). This area has seen a rapid growth of interest. On one hand,  the use of mobile agents is becoming increasingly popular when computing in networked environments, ranging from Internet to the Data Grid, both as a theoretical paradigm and as a system-supported programming platform. On the other hand, the theoretical and algorithmic  study of autonomous robots is now even more important considering  the link with a network of mobile sensors. From   computational and   algorithmic viewpoints, research on mobile agents, on autonomous robots (and especially on mobile sensor networks) is still at a very early stage. Theoretical frameworks are vague and sometimes missing, algorithmic techniques and tools   are primitive.  To start covering this lack of theoretical and algorithmic background,  this project focuses on computational and algorithmic issues arising  in systems of mobile entities. The main goals are: to reach a better understanding of the computational power of mobile entities (i.e., what tasks can be performed by the entities, under what conditions, and at what cost), and to design efficient algorithms for solving basic coordination, control, and security problems. Both the computational and the algorithmic tasks will be studied also in presence of possibly unsafe components in the environments (faults, harmful elements). In particular,  in the case of mobile agents  the project  considers situations when some  of the hosts are harmful (e.g., host attack), and when an unwanted intruder  is moving   in the network(e.g., a spyware or a virus).  In the first case,  the goal of the agents is to localize the harmful host trying not to be  damaged by it, in the second case, it is to capture the intruder. In the case of robots, the project focuses on computability issues and on the   design of coordination   algorithms, under different assumptions on the capabilities of the robots; particular emphasis and focus is on applications in the  context of  mobile sensor networks.