Distributed Harmonic-Covariance Feedback for Hole Closure in Planar Robot Swarms

arXiv:2610.12637v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We consider hole closure in a planar multi-agent system whose sensing disks form a time-varying Cech complex. We propose a harmonic-covariance feedback that uses harmonic edge signals to locate holes and converts those signals into agent forces. For distributed evaluation, we use a fixed-degree polynomial of the regularized Hodge Laplacian. This polynomial is evaluated through local operator applications. The closed loop has a unique global trajectory from every safe initial state. The model data and initial state are supplied with procedures for approximation to any requested accuracy with explicit error bounds. We assume that hole area is measurable and bounded, holes evolve continuously without splitting or merging, and only finitely many temporary new holes appear. Under these conditions, offline finite calculations produce rational lower bounds for the cumulative hole area on the time horizon without querying trajectory data. These bounds converge to that cumulative area, whether finite or infinite. If it is finite, holes close in the time-averaged sense: the average normalized hole area over every fixed-length time window tends to zero as time tends to infinity. In a 15-second numerical demo, all holes close by 9.9s and remain closed through the end.

Source: arXiv cs.RO | 2026-10-12