Let's say, in an unstructured environment, we want to build a barrier target structure as shown here. This structure can be decomposed into a robot deposition path where the center of this path can then be represented as a simple 1D height map.

The intersection of markers on the path and the different levels of the target structure represent the various goals a robot needs to reach by depositing material along its path thereby constructing navigable substructures.

We can begin the construction process with 3 robots, each starting at a specific entry point to the structure. The robots deposit material (shown in red) in order to reach their various navigation goals and also keep track of the structure state.

Each robot performs this process independently and the reference map provides a compact way to record and communicate their progress to other robots. Distribution of tasks takes place as a result of local interactions and the system may be scaled at any time during the construction process. Thus, the entire target structure may be constructed in a decentralized manner.