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We prove PSPACE-completeness of Push-1: given a rectangular grid of 1 x 1 cells, each possibly occupied by a movable block, can a robot move from one specified location to another, given the ability to push up to one block at a time? In…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2026-05-11 MIT Hardness Group , Josh Brunner , Lily Chung , Erik D. Demaine , Jenny Diomidova , Della Hendrickson , Jayson Lynch

We investigate algorithmic control of a large swarm of mobile particles (such as robots, sensors, or building material) that move in a 2D workspace using a global input signal (such as gravity or a magnetic field). We show that a maze of…

Emerging Technologies · Computer Science 2017-12-05 Aaron T. Becker , Erik D. Demaine , Sándor P. Fekete , Jarrett Lonsforda , Rose Morris-Wright

Modular reconfigurable manipulators enable quick adaptation and versatility to address different application environments and tailor to the specific requirements of the tasks. Task performance significantly depends on the manipulator's…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-12-17 Maolin Lei , Edoardo Romiti , Arturo Laurenz , Nikos G. Tsagarakis

A robotic platform for mobile manipulation needs to satisfy two contradicting requirements for many real-world applications: A compact base is required to navigate through cluttered indoor environments, while the support needs to be large…

We consider the problem of reconfiguring a two-dimensional connected grid arrangement of passive building blocks from a start configuration to a goal configuration, using a single active robot that can move on the tiles, remove individual…

In this paper, we seek to provide a simpler proof that the relocation problem in Ricochet Robots (Lunar Lockout with fixed geometry) is PSPACE-complete via a reduction from Finite Function Generation (FFG). Although this result was…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2024-02-20 Jose Balanza-Martinez , Angel A. Cantu , Robert Schweller , Tim Wylie

The topology of a robotic swarm affects the convergence speed of consensus and the mobility of the robots. In this paper, we prove the existence of a complete set of local topology manipulation operations that allow the transformation of a…

We present the first results on the parameterized complexity of reconfiguration problems, where a reconfiguration version of an optimization problem $Q$ takes as input two feasible solutions $S$ and $T$ and determines if there is a sequence…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2013-08-23 Amer E. Mouawad , Naomi Nishimura , Venkatesh Raman , Narges Simjour , Akira Suzuki

We study the classic sliding cube model for programmable matter under parallel reconfiguration in three dimensions, providing novel algorithmic and surprising complexity results in addition to generalizing the best known bounds from two to…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2026-03-10 Hugo A. Akitaya , Joseph Dorfer , Peter Kramer , Christian Rieck , Gabriel Shahrouzi , Frederick Stock

If robots are to become ubiquitous, they will need to be able to adapt to complex and dynamic environments. Robots that can adapt their bodies while deployed might be flexible and robust enough to meet this challenge. Previous work on…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-07-24 Tønnes F. Nygaard , Charles P. Martin , Jim Torresen , Kyrre Glette

Multi-robot motion planning is a hard problem. We investigate restricted variants of the problem where square robots are allowed to slide over an arbitrary curve to a new position only a constant number of times each. We show that the…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2026-03-06 Thijs van der Horst , Maarten Löffler , Tim Ophelders , Tom Peters

We present an algorithm that efficiently computes nearly-optimal solutions to a class of combinatorial reconfiguration problems on weighted, undirected graphs. Inspired by societally relevant applications in networked infrastructure…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Samuel Talkington , Dmitrii M. Ostrovskii , Daniel K. Molzahn

Given a point in $m$-dimensional objective space, any $\varepsilon$-ball of a point can be partitioned into the incomparable, the dominated and dominating region. The ratio between the size of the incomparable region, and the dominated (and…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2020-06-22 Yali Wang , André Deutz , Thomas Bäck , Michael Emmerich

Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot (MSRR) systems are a class of robots capable of forming higher-level robotic systems by altering the topological relationships between modules, offering enhanced adaptability and robustness in various…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-01-28 Jie Gu , Tin Lun Lam , Chunxu Tian , Zhihao Xia , Yongheng Xing , Dan Zhang

We study the Universal Solvability of Robot Motion Planning on Graphs (USolR) problem: given an undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ and $p$ robots, determine whether any arbitrary configuration of the robots can be transformed into any other…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Anubhav Dhar , Pranav Nyati , Tanishq Prasad , Ashlesha Hota , Sudeshna Kolay

Modular and reconfigurable robotic systems have been designed to provide a customized solution for the non-repetitive tasks to be performed in a constrained environment. Customized solutions are normally extracted from task-based…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-11-02 Anubhav Dogra , Sakshay Mahna , Srikant Sekhar Padhee , Ekta Singla

We study the parameterized complexity of a variant of the classic video game Snake that models real-world problems of motion planning. Given a snake-like robot with an initial position and a final position in an environment (modeled by a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-03-07 Siddharth Gupta , Guy Sa'ar , Meirav Zehavi

\textsc{Directed Token Sliding} asks, given a directed graph and two sets of pairwise nonadjacent vertices, whether one can reach from one set to the other by repeatedly applying a local operation that exchanges a vertex in the current set…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-03-28 Takehiro Ito , Yuni Iwamasa , Yasuaki Kobayashi , Yu Nakahata , Yota Otachi , Masahiro Takahashi , Kunihiro Wasa

We study reconfiguration problems for cliques in a graph, which determine whether there exists a sequence of cliques that transforms a given clique into another one in a step-by-step fashion. As one step of a transformation, we consider…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-12-15 Takehiro Ito , Hirotaka Ono , Yota Otachi

Reconfigurable robot swarms are capable of connecting with each other to form complex structures. Current mechanical or magnetic connection mechanisms can be complicated to manufacture, consume high power, have a limited load-bearing…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-12-03 Sha Yi , Katia Sycara , Zeynep Temel