Algorithms for Systems of Autonomous and Mobile Computational Entities

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to attract original research contributions on modeling, computability, and algorithmic aspects of Multi-entity Computing Systems (MCSs).

In their most general acceptation, MCSs can be characterized as a set of autonomous and mobile entities, i.e., both equipped with some form of computational power and motion capabilities, that operate in a shared environment, such as, e.g., Euclidean space or graphs, to accomplish some global (computational) tasks.

Several real-world technologies of prominent practical impact can be modeled as MCSs, examples of which include, among others, the following: multi-robot computing systems, robotic swarms, networks of software agents, web crawlers, viruses, flocks of drones or UAVs, ant colonies, mobile wireless sensor networks, and systems of programmable particles.

Due to the increasing importance of MCSs applications, in the last decade, we have witnessed the rise of an essentially entirely new field of computer science and engineering, dedicated to research on the algorithmic properties of MCSs.

In fact, despite the very different nature of the specific application domains, these systems share several features from both the abstraction and the computational viewpoints that make them suited for being studied by a systematic rigorous approach.

Specifically, proper design, analysis, and deployment of algorithms for MCSs require a combination of efforts from various consolidated areas such as distributed computing, computational geometry, computability theory, algorithm engineering, control theory, and combinatorics.

The main objectives of this very active research field are identifying effective modeling methodologies and determining which tasks can be performed by the entities, under which conditions, and, if possible, at what cost.

In particular, the central question is to determine the minimal set of assumptions that allow tasks of practical relevance to be accomplished, and to accordingly design robust, reliable, and efficient algorithmic solutions.

We solicit the submission of original contributions and new scientific results on MCSs, broadly speaking, including the following: design and analysis of algorithms for MCSs, engineering of MCSs, theoretical advancements on the analysis of the computational properties of MCSs, experimental evaluation of MCSs, and simulation platforms. High-quality survey contributions are also welcome.

Topics of interest related to MCSs include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Algorithms, complexity, and computability;
• Algorithm Engineering;
• Impossibility results;
• Mobile computing;
• Distributed algorithms;
• Self-organization of mobile entities;
• Dynamic algorithms and data structures;
• Self-stabilization;
• Experimental algorithmics and heuristics;
• Multi-robot computing systems;
• Multi-agent systems;
• Sensors and ad-hoc networks;
• Population protocols;
• Programmable particles and nanoscale robots (programmable matter);
• Entities in adversarial settings;
• Networked systems and distributed robotics;
• Empirical studies and industrial experience;
• Programming frameworks, languages, models, and abstractions;
• Swarm and collective behavior;
• Precision agriculture and smart farming;
• Delivery by drones;
• Localization and synchronization;
• Simulation techniques, tools, and platforms;
• Cyber-physical systems;
• Algorithmic game theory;
• Internet of things;
• Data aggregation and fusion;
• Large-scale multi-entity computing systems;
• Fault-tolerance and dependability.

Prof. Dr. Mattia D'Emidio
Prof. Dr. Alfredo Navarra
Guest Editors

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