We defend the idea that distributed high-level algorithmic primitives suitable for the coordination of large-scale robotic ensembles should be both identified and designed. Besides, these needs were stated during the 2016 Dagstuhl Seminar on Algorithmic Foundations of Programmable Matter. In particular, we have been working on the time synchronization and the centrality-based leader election problems.
Our research strongly intersects with the work achieved in the fields of distributed systems, computer networks, sensor networks, ad-hoc networks, etc. In particular, centrality and time synchronization have been widely studied in the literature but rarely in ad-hoc networks composed of tens of thousands of resource-constrained devices. We address these problems from an efficiency and scalability perspective.
