Distributed Computing on the Move: From mobile computing to cooperative robotics and nanorobotics

Distributed computing is beginning to extend its scope to address problems relevant to a mobile environment (mobile computing). For the most part, current research efforts in mobile computing and ad hoc networking are implicitly aimed at mobile telephony and the emerging field of ubiquitous computing. More generally, this paper considers distributed computing environments in which hosts are (physically) mobile. The paper essentially advocates the integration into the picture of other important challenges that seem to represent the next logical step beyond mobile computing, namely cooperative robotics and nanorobotics. Conceptually, the main difference introduced by mobile computing over classical distributed computing is the fact that the physical position of hosts becomes an important parameter which can no longer be abstracted out. Cooperative robotics brings the issue further by allowing (and requiring) to actually control the physical position of the hosts.