2013/07/16 by Shlomi Dolev, Dolev, Shlomi, Robert Gmyr +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Distributed #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Parallel #and Cluster Computing (cs.DC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1307.4259
openalex publication_date 2013/07/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Particle systems are physical systems of simple computational particles that can bond to neighboring particles and use these bonds to move from one spot to another (non-occupied) spot. These particle systems are supposed to be able to self-organize in order to adapt to a desired shape without any central control. Self-organizing particle systems have many interesting applications like coating objects for monitoring and repair purposes and the formation of nano-scale devices for surgery and molecular-scale electronic structures. While there has been quite a lot of systems work in this area, especially in the context of modular self-reconfigurable robotic systems, only very little theoretical work has been done in this area so far. We attempt to bridge this gap by proposing a model inspired by the behavior of ameba that allows rigorous algorithmic research on self-organizing particle systems.