Computing by Mobile Robotic Sensors

The research areas of mobile robotic sensors lie in the intersection of two major fields of investigations carried out by quite distinct communities of researchers: autonomous robots and mobile sensor networks. Robotic sensors are micro-robots capable of locomotion and sensing. Like the sensors in wireless sensor networks, they are myopic: their sensing range is limited. Unlike the sensors in wireless sensor networks, robotic sensors are silent: they have no direct communication capabilities. This means that synchronization, interaction, and communication of information among the robotic sensors can be achieved solely by means of their sensing capability, usually called vision. In this Chapter, we review the results of the investigations on the computability and complexity aspects of systems formed by these myopic and silent mobile sensors.