2017/12/13 by Andrew Adamatzky, Adamatzky, Andrew
Engineering · Materials Science · #Emerging Technologies (cs.ET) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Innovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques Innovation #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Slime Mold and Myxomycetes Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1712.04681
openalex publication_date 2017/12/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
There is a growing interest towards implementation of maze solving in spatially-extended physical, chemical and living systems. Several reports of prototypes attracted great publicity, e.g. maze solving with slime mould and epithelial cells, maze navigating droplets. We show that most prototypes utilise one of two phenomena: a shortest path in a maze is a path of the least resistance for fluid and current flow, and a shortest path is a path of the steepest gradient of chemoattractants. We discuss that substrates with so-called maze-solving capabilities simply trace flow currents or chemical diffusion gradients. We illustrate our thoughts with a model of flow and experiments with slime mould. The chapter ends with a discussion of experiments on maze solving with plant roots and leeches which show limitations of the chemical diffusion maze-solving approach.