Distributed Computing by Mobile Entities : Crucial Factors

移动实体的分布式计算是一个丰富的理论研究领域，其目标是了解计算实体在空间宇宙中操作和移动的限制和能力。*由一个大型国际研究人员社区进行的数十年的研究已经将该领域扩展到包括离散和连续的广泛的“计算环境”。尽管有这些广泛而深入的研究，但移动实体的分布式计算的许多基本知识仍然没有得到探索，这在我们的知识中留下了深刻的根本性缺口。即使对于所谓的关键因素，即可以决定问题是否可解的实体或环境的结构属性，这种知识差距也是正确的。*同步、知识、记忆、匿名性和方向感等关键因素的重要性是公认的事实，这是分布式计算社区内正在进行的研究确立的。然而，每个关键因素的影响(如何、为什么、何时)的确切性质仍然鲜为人知，有时甚至是未知的。人们更不了解的是不同元素之间的相互作用。即使在最广为人知和被研究的关键因素--同步程度方面，我们的知识也存在差距。*本研究计划的重点恰恰是关键因素及其相互作用。我们的目标是弥合这些根本的差距，从而加强移动实体分布式计算的基础。*尽管是理论上的，但该领域和所有这些研究都在大量的应用中找到了灵感和动机，从群体机器人到移动软件代理，从移动传感器网络到可编程粒子。因此，这一研究计划产生的结果可能会提供对一些潜在现象的一般理解，可能导致在特定背景下有用的应用程序。

Distributed Computing by Mobile Entities is a rich theoretical research field whose aim is to understand limitations and abilities of computational entities operating and moving in a spatial universe.***Decades of investigations by a large international community of researchers have expanded the field to cover a wide spectrum of "computational settings", both discrete and continuous. In spite of these extensive and intensive investigations, much of the basics of distributed computing by mobile entities is still unexplored leaving deep fundamental gaps in our knowledge. This knowledge gap is true even with respect to the so-called crucial factors, that is the structural properties of the entities or of the environment that can determine whether a problem is solvable or not solvable.***The importance of crucial factors such as synchronization, knowledge, memory, anonymity, and sense of direction, is an accepted fact, established by the ongoing investigations within the Distributed Computing community. However, the precise nature of the impact (how, why, when) of each crucial factor is still poorly understood and sometimes unknown. Even less understood is the interplay between different elements. Gaps in our knowledge exist even with regards to the most well-known and investigated crucial factor, the level of synchronization.***The focus of this research program is precisely on crucial factors and their interplay. The goal is to close these fundamental gaps, so to strengthen the foundations of distributed computing by mobile entities.***Although theoretical, the field and all these investigations find their inspiration and motivation in a large variety of applications, ranging from swarm robotics to mobile software agents, from mobile sensor networks to programmable particles. Hence, the results generated by this research program are likely to provide a general understanding of some of the underlying phenomena, possibly leading to applications useful in specific contexts.**