Stand Up Indulgent Rendezvous

TL;DR

This paper studies how two mobile robots can meet in finite time despite one crashing unpredictably, by defining conditions and algorithms for the rendezvous problem in Euclidean space.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of stand up indulgent rendezvous and provides algorithms for solving it under various crash scenarios.

Findings

Algorithms successfully achieve rendezvous despite crashes.

Characterization of system assumptions necessary for solvability.

Solutions applicable in continuous Euclidean space.

Abstract

We consider two mobile oblivious robots that evolve in a continuous Euclidean space. We require the two robots to solve the rendezvous problem (meeting in finite time at the same location, not known beforehand) despite the possibility that one of those robots crashes unpredictably. The rendezvous is stand up indulgent in the sense that when a crash occurs, the correct robot must still meet the crashed robot on its last position. We characterize the system assumptions that enable problem solvability, and present a series of algorithms that solve the problem for the possible cases.