Robotic morphogenesis

Abstract

A new, biologically motivated approach to self-organizing pattern formation and function determination in a distributed array of many identical cells is presented. Methods for asynchronous pattern formation using linear swarm models, pattern formation by boundary pattern generation and propagation, and differentiation by message coding are proposed. A gradient descent based algorithm for linear swarms that guarantees convergence is introduced. 2D pattern formation in an array of identical cells is demonstrated by simulation.