Distributed Computing by Mobile Entities : Crucial Factors

基于移动的实体的分布式计算是一个丰富的理论研究领域，其目标是 理解计算实体在空间宇宙中操作和移动的限制和能力。数十年的调查，由一个庞大的国际社会的研究人员已经扩大了该领域，以涵盖广泛的“计算设置”，离散和连续的。尽管这些广泛而深入的调查，许多基础的分布式计算的移动的实体仍然是未开发的，留下深刻的根本差距，在我们的知识。这种知识差距甚至在所谓的关键因素方面也是真实的，即实体或环境的结构特性，这些结构特性可以决定问题是否可解。的 同步、知识、内存、匿名和方向感等关键因素的重要性是一个公认的事实，这是分布式计算社区正在进行的调查所确立的。然而，对每个关键因素的影响的确切性质（如何、为什么、何时）仍然知之甚少，有时甚至不知道。更不了解的是不同元素之间的相互作用。我们的知识差距甚至存在于最知名和研究的关键因素，同步水平。这项研究计划的重点正是在 关键因素及其相互作用。我们的目标是缩小这些根本差距，从而加强移动的实体的分布式计算基础。*虽然理论上，该领域和所有这些调查发现他们的灵感和动机在各种各样的应用，从群集机器人到移动的软件代理，从移动的传感器网络可编程粒子。因此，这项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，可能会导致在特定环境中有用的应用。

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.**