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Morphogenetic Engineering pp 473–499Cite as

Swarm-Based Computational Development

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Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

Swarms are a metaphor for complex dynamic systems. In swarms, large numbers of individuals locally interact and form non-linear, dynamic interaction networks. Ants, wasps and termites, for instance, are natural swarms whose individual and group behaviors have been evolving over millions of years. In their intricate nest constructions, the emergent effectiveness of their behaviors becomes apparent. Swarm-based computational simulations capture the corresponding principles of agent-based, decentralized, self-organizing models. In this work, we present ideas around swarm-based developmental systems, in particular swarm grammars, a swarm-based generative representation, and our efforts towards the unification of this methodology and the improvement of its accessibility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    \(R_a\), the average reuse of symbols during program execution works well as a structural measure when normalized against the design size, whereas \(R_m\), the average reuse of modules, yields a scalable measure when divided by the system’s algorithmic information content [20].

  2. 2.

    In the given experiment we rely on the Bullet physics engine, http://bulletphysics.org.

  3. 3.

    Artificial swarms can be considered a special case of agent-based modeling with a focus on large numbers of locally interacting individuals and the potential of emergent phenomena which cannot be inferred from the individuals’ abilities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Sebastian von Mammen

  2. Departments of Cell Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    David Phillips, Timothy Davison, Heather Jamniczky & Benedikt Hallgrímsson

  3. Departments of Computer Science and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Christian Jacob

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  1. Sebastian von Mammen
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  2. David Phillips
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  3. Timothy Davison
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  4. Heather Jamniczky
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  5. Benedikt Hallgrímsson
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  6. Christian Jacob
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Correspondence to Sebastian von Mammen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Systèmes Complexes, Paris Ile-de-France, Ecole Polytechnique, rue Lhomond 57-59, Paris, 75005, France

    René Doursat

  2. Binghamton University, Dept. Bioengineering, State University of New York, Binghamton, 13902-6000, New York, USA

    Hiroki Sayama

  3. Faculté des Sciences et Technologie, Lab. LACL-EA 4219, Université Paris-Est Créteil, avenue due Général de Gaulle 61, Créteil Cedex, 94010, France

    Olivier Michel

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von Mammen, S., Phillips, D., Davison, T., Jamniczky, H., Hallgrímsson, B., Jacob, C. (2012). Swarm-Based Computational Development. In: Doursat, R., Sayama, H., Michel, O. (eds) Morphogenetic Engineering. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_18

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