# Asynchronous Network Formation in Unknown Unbounded Environments

## TL;DR

This paper introduces an online algorithm for multi-robot information dissemination in unknown, large environments, with proven competitive ratios and validation through simulations and real-world experiments.

## Contribution

It presents a novel online network formation algorithm with competitive analysis for unknown environments, improving efficiency in random initial configurations.

## Key findings

- Competitive ratio of $O(H imes ext{max}igrace M, ext{sqrt}(M H)igrace)$ for arbitrary deployments.
- Improved ratio of $O(M)$ when initial positions are random.
- Validation through simulations and a three-robot field experiment.

## Abstract

In this paper, we study the Online Network Formation Problem (ONFP) for a mobile multi-robot system. Consider a group of robots with a bounded communication range operating in a large open area. One of the robots has a piece of information which has to be propagated to all other robots. What strategy should the robots pursue to disseminate the information to the rest of the robots as quickly as possible? The initial locations of the robots are unknown to each other, therefore the problem must be solved in an online fashion. For this problem, we present an algorithm whose competitive ratio is $O(H \cdot \max\{M,\sqrt{M H}\})$ for arbitrary robot deployments, where $M$ is the largest edge length in the Euclidean minimum spanning tree on the initial robot configuration and $H$ is the height of the tree. We also study the case when the robot initial positions are chosen uniformly at random and improve the ratio to $O(M)$. Finally, we present simulation results to validate the performance in larger scales and demonstrate our algorithm using three robots in a field experiment.