Algorithms for mobile agents, autonomous robots, and sensor networks

自主移动的实体的研究领域起源于人工智能、机器人技术和软件工程等不同领域，重点关注能够在网络上移动的计算实体（例如，移动的软件代理）或地形（例如，自主机器人或移动的传感器）。人们对这一领域的兴趣迅速增长。一方面，移动的代理的使用正在变得越来越流行，当计算在网络环境中，从互联网到数据网格，无论是作为一个理论范式，并作为一个系统支持的编程平台。另一方面，考虑到与移动的传感器网络的联系，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 从算法的观点来看，对移动的代理、自主机器人（特别是对移动的传感器网络）的研究仍处于非常早期的阶段。理论框架模糊不清，有时甚至缺失，算法技术和工具 是原始的。 为了开始覆盖这种缺乏理论和算法背景，这个项目集中在移动的实体系统中出现的计算和算法问题。主要目标是：更好地理解移动的实体的计算能力（即，实体可以执行什么任务、在什么条件下、以什么代价），以及设计用于解决基本协调、控制和安全问题的有效算法。计算和算法任务也将在环境中存在可能不安全的组件（故障，有害元素）的情况下进行研究。特别是，在移动的代理的情况下，该项目考虑了一些主机有害的情况（例如，主机攻击），以及当不需要的入侵者移动时 在网络中（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主机，尽量不被它损坏，在第二种情况下，它是捕获入侵者。就机器人而言，该项目侧重于可计算性问题和 协调设计 算法，在不同的假设下的机器人的能力，特别强调和重点是在移动的传感器网络的背景下的应用程序。

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.