323 research outputs found
Complex Systems: A Survey
A complex system is a system composed of many interacting parts, often called
agents, which displays collective behavior that does not follow trivially from
the behaviors of the individual parts. Examples include condensed matter
systems, ecosystems, stock markets and economies, biological evolution, and
indeed the whole of human society. Substantial progress has been made in the
quantitative understanding of complex systems, particularly since the 1980s,
using a combination of basic theory, much of it derived from physics, and
computer simulation. The subject is a broad one, drawing on techniques and
ideas from a wide range of areas. Here I give a survey of the main themes and
methods of complex systems science and an annotated bibliography of resources,
ranging from classic papers to recent books and reviews.Comment: 10 page
Dynamic coordinated control laws in multiple agent models
We present an active control scheme of a kinetic model of swarming. It has
been shown previously that the global control scheme for the model, presented
in \cite{JK04}, gives rise to spontaneous collective organization of agents
into a unified coherent swarm, via a long-range attractive and short-range
repulsive potential. We extend these results by presenting control laws whereby
a single swarm is broken into independently functioning subswarm clusters. The
transition between one coordinated swarm and multiple clustered subswarms is
managed simply with a homotopy parameter. Additionally, we present as an
alternate formulation, a local control law for the same model, which implements
dynamic barrier avoidance behavior, and in which swarm coherence emerges
spontaneously.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure
A framework for the local information dynamics of distributed computation in complex systems
The nature of distributed computation has often been described in terms of
the component operations of universal computation: information storage,
transfer and modification. We review the first complete framework that
quantifies each of these individual information dynamics on a local scale
within a system, and describes the manner in which they interact to create
non-trivial computation where "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".
We describe the application of the framework to cellular automata, a simple yet
powerful model of distributed computation. This is an important application,
because the framework is the first to provide quantitative evidence for several
important conjectures about distributed computation in cellular automata: that
blinkers embody information storage, particles are information transfer agents,
and particle collisions are information modification events. The framework is
also shown to contrast the computations conducted by several well-known
cellular automata, highlighting the importance of information coherence in
complex computation. The results reviewed here provide important quantitative
insights into the fundamental nature of distributed computation and the
dynamics of complex systems, as well as impetus for the framework to be applied
to the analysis and design of other systems.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figure
Path Finding and Collision Avoidance in Crowd Simulation
Motion planning for multiple entities or a crowd is a challenging problem in today’s virtual environments. We describe in this paper a system designed to simulate pedestrian behaviour in crowds in real time, concentrating particularity on collision avoidance. On-line planning is also referred as the navigation problem. Additional difficulties in approaching navigation problem are that some environments are dynamic. In our model we adopted a popular methodology in computer games, namely A* algorithm. The idea behind A* is to look for the shortest possible routes to the destination not through exploring exhaustively all the possible combination but utilizing all the possible directions at any given point. The environment is formed in regions and the algorithm is used to find a path only in visual region. In order to deal with collision avoidance, priority rules are given to some entities as well as some social behaviour
Disciplined Exploration of Emergence Using Multi-Agent Simulation Framework
In recent years the concept of emergence has gained much attention as ICT systems have started exhibiting properties usually associated with complex systems. Although emergence creates many problems for engineering complex ICT systems by introducing undesired behaviour, it also offers many possibilities for advance in the area of adaptive self-organizing systems. However, at the moment the inability to predict and control emergent phenomena prevents us from exploring its full potential or avoiding problems in existing complex systems. Towards this end, this paper proposes a framework for empirical study of complex systems exhibiting emergence. The framework relies on agent-oriented modelling and simulation as a tool for examination of specific manifestations of emergence. The main idea is to use an iterative simulation process in order to build a coarse taxonomy of causal relationships between the micro- and macro layers. In addition to the detailed description of the framework, the paper also discusses the corresponding verification and validation processes as important factor for the success of such a study
Modeling Family Behaviors in Crowd Simulation
Modeling human behavior for a general situation is difficult, if not impossible. Crowd simulation represents one of the approaches most commonly used to model such behavior. It is mainly concerned with modeling the different human structures incorporated in a crowd. These structures could comprise individuals, groups, friends, and families. Various instances of these structures and their corresponding behaviors are modeled to predict crowd responses under certain circumstances and to subsequently improve event management, facility and emergency planning.
Most currently existing modeled behaviors are concerned with depicting individuals as autonomous agents or groups of agents in certain environments. This research focuses on providing structural and state-based behavioral models for the concept of a family incorporated in the crowd. The structural model defines parents, teenagers, children, and elderly as members of the family. It also draws on the associated interrelationships and the rules that govern them. The behavioral model of the family encompasses a number of behavioral models associated with the triggering of certain well-known activities that correspond to the family’s situation. For instance, in normal cases, a family member(s) may be hungry, bored, or tired, may need a restroom, etc. In an emergency case, a family may experience the loss of a family member(s), the need to assist in safe evacuation, etc. Activities that such cases trigger include splitting, joining, carrying children, looking for family member(s), or waiting for them. The proposed family model is implemented on top of the RVO2 library that is using agent-based approach in crowd simulation. Simulation case studies are developed to answer research questions related to various family evacuation approaches in emergency situations
Spatio-Temporal Patterns act as Computational Mechanisms governing Emergent behavior in Robotic Swarms
open access articleOur goal is to control a robotic swarm without removing its swarm-like nature. In other words, we aim to intrinsically control a robotic swarm emergent behavior. Past attempts at governing robotic swarms or their selfcoordinating emergent behavior, has proven ineffective, largely due to the swarm’s inherent randomness (making it difficult to predict) and utter simplicity (they lack a leader, any kind of centralized control, long-range communication, global knowledge, complex internal models and only operate on a couple of basic, reactive rules). The main problem is that emergent phenomena itself is not fully understood, despite being at the forefront of current research. Research into 1D and 2D Cellular Automata has uncovered a hidden computational layer which bridges the micromacro gap (i.e., how individual behaviors at the micro-level influence the global behaviors on the macro-level). We hypothesize that there also lie embedded computational mechanisms at the heart of a robotic swarm’s emergent behavior. To test this theory, we proceeded to simulate robotic swarms (represented as both particles and dynamic networks) and then designed local rules to induce various types of intelligent, emergent behaviors (as well as designing genetic algorithms to evolve robotic swarms with emergent behaviors). Finally, we analysed these robotic swarms and successfully confirmed our hypothesis; analyzing their developments and interactions over time revealed various forms of embedded spatiotemporal patterns which store, propagate and parallel process information across the swarm according to some internal, collision-based logic (solving the mystery of how simple robots are able to self-coordinate and allow global behaviors to emerge across the swarm)
Complex Beauty
Complex systems and their underlying convoluted networks are ubiquitous, all
we need is an eye for them. They pose problems of organized complexity which
cannot be approached with a reductionist method. Complexity science and its
emergent sister network science both come to grips with the inherent complexity
of complex systems with an holistic strategy. The relevance of complexity,
however, transcends the sciences. Complex systems and networks are the focal
point of a philosophical, cultural and artistic turn of our tightly
interrelated and interdependent postmodern society. Here I take a different,
aesthetic perspective on complexity. I argue that complex systems can be
beautiful and can the object of artification - the neologism refers to
processes in which something that is not regarded as art in the traditional
sense of the word is changed into art. Complex systems and networks are
powerful sources of inspiration for the generative designer, for the artful
data visualizer, as well as for the traditional artist. I finally discuss the
benefits of a cross-fertilization between science and art
Bits from Biology for Computational Intelligence
Computational intelligence is broadly defined as biologically-inspired
computing. Usually, inspiration is drawn from neural systems. This article
shows how to analyze neural systems using information theory to obtain
constraints that help identify the algorithms run by such systems and the
information they represent. Algorithms and representations identified
information-theoretically may then guide the design of biologically inspired
computing systems (BICS). The material covered includes the necessary
introduction to information theory and the estimation of information theoretic
quantities from neural data. We then show how to analyze the information
encoded in a system about its environment, and also discuss recent
methodological developments on the question of how much information each agent
carries about the environment either uniquely, or redundantly or
synergistically together with others. Last, we introduce the framework of local
information dynamics, where information processing is decomposed into component
processes of information storage, transfer, and modification -- locally in
space and time. We close by discussing example applications of these measures
to neural data and other complex systems
- …