  This paper presents a novel robot-environment interaction in navigation tasks
such that robots have neither a representation of their working space nor
planning function, instead, an active environment takes charge of these
aspects. This is realized by spatially deploying computing units, called cells,
and making cells manage traffic in their respective physical region. Different
from stigmegic approaches, cells interact with each other to manage
environmental information and to construct instructions on how robots move.
  As a proof-of-concept, we present an architecture called AFADA and its
prototype, consisting of modular cells and robots moving on the cells. The
instructions from cells are based on a distributed routing algorithm and a
reservation protocol. We demonstrate that AFADA achieves efficient robot moves
for single-robot navigation in a dynamic environment changing its topology with
a stochastic model, comparing to self-navigation by a robot itself. This is
followed by several demos, including multi-robot navigation, highlighting the
power of offloading both representation and planning from robots to the
environment. We expect that the concept of AFADA contributes to developing the
infrastructure for multiple robots because it can engage online and lifelong
planning and execution.
