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arXiv · 1409.4863

On the fundamental limitations of performance for distributed decision-making in robotic networks

Federico Rossi·Marco Pavone
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Abstract

This paper studies fundamental limitations of performance for distributed decision-making in robotic networks. The class of decision-making problems we consider encompasses a number of prototypical problems such as average-based consensus as well as distributed optimization, leader election, majority voting, MAX, MIN, and logical formulas. We first propose a formal model for distributed computation on robotic networks that is based on the concept of I/O automata and is inspired by the Computer Science literature on distributed computing clusters. Then, we present a number of bounds on time, message, and byte complexity, which we use to discuss the relative performance of a number of approaches for distributed decision-making. From a methodological standpoint, our work sheds light on the relation between the tools developed by the Computer Science and Controls communities on the topic of distributed algorithms.

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Federico Rossi, Marco Pavone. 2014-09-17. On the fundamental limitations of performance for distributed decision-making in robotic networks. https://doi.org/10.1109/cdc.2014.7039760

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