KINE[SIS]TEM'17 From Nature to Architectural Matter

Kine[SiS]tem – From Kinesis + System. Kinesis is a non-linear movement or activity of an organism in response to a stimulus. A system is a set of interacting and interdependent agents forming a complex whole, delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, influenced by its environment. How can architectural systems moderate the external environment to enhance comfort conditions in a simple, sustainable and smart way? This is the starting question for the Kine[SiS]tem’17 – From Nature to Architectural Matter International Conference. For decades, architectural design was developed despite (and not with) the climate, based on mechanical heating and cooling. Today, the argument for net zero energy buildings needs very effective strategies to reduce energy requirements. The challenge ahead requires design processes that are built upon consolidated knowledge, make use of advanced technologies and are inspired by nature. These design processes should lead to responsive smart systems that deliver the best performance in each specific design scenario. To control solar radiation is one key factor in low-energy thermal comfort. Computational-controlled sensor-based kinetic surfaces are one of the possible answers to control solar energy in an effective way, within the scope of contradictory objectives throughout the year.FC

Task Allocation in Foraging Robot Swarms:The Role of Information Sharing

Autonomous task allocation is a desirable feature of robot swarms that collect and deliver items in scenarios where congestion, caused by accumulated items or robots, can temporarily interfere with swarm behaviour. In such settings, self-regulation of workforce can prevent unnecessary energy consumption. We explore two types of self-regulation: non-social, where robots become idle upon experiencing congestion, and social, where robots broadcast information about congestion to their team mates in order to socially inhibit foraging. We show that while both types of self-regulation can lead to improved energy efficiency and increase the amount of resource collected, the speed with which information about congestion flows through a swarm affects the scalability of these algorithms

A Computational Multiagent Model of Bioluminescent Bacteria for the Emergence of Self-Sustainable and Self-Maintaining Artificial Wireless Networks

International audienceBiology is a rich source of inspiration in designing digital artifacts capable of autonomous, cooperative and distributed behaviors. Particularly, conceptual links can be established between (1) communication networks and (2) colonies of bacteria that communicate using chemical molecules. The goal of this paper is to propose a computational multiagent model of an interspecies bacterial communication system, termed quorum sensing, and analyze its self-sustainability and its self-maintaining ability to cooperatively form artificial wireless networks. Specifically, we propose a bottom-up agent-based approach combined with Ordinary Differential Equations, which abstract the intracellular dynamics, such as a proposed metabolism model that serves as a basis underlying self-sustainable networks. Results show that artificial bacterial cells have regeneration abilities in the light of random cell death and selected area for cell death, and a metabolism allowing them to exploit their own produced energy to cooperate at the population level to exhibit near-optimal self-organizing light-producing behaviors. The resulting artificial networks display several beneficial properties and could be used for the emergence of resistant wireless network topologies without the use of overhead messages