19,248 research outputs found
Ecosystem-Oriented Distributed Evolutionary Computing
We create a novel optimisation technique inspired by natural ecosystems,
where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation, migration of
genes which are distributed in a peer-to-peer network, operating continuously
in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on evolutionary
computing that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at finding
solutions to satisfy locally relevant constraints. We consider from the domain
of computer science distributed evolutionary computing, with the relevant
theory from the domain of theoretical biology, including the fields of
evolutionary and ecological theory, the topological structure of ecosystems,
and evolutionary processes within distributed environments. We then define
ecosystem- oriented distributed evolutionary computing, imbibed with the
properties of self-organisation, scalability and sustainability from natural
ecosystems, including a novel form of distributed evolu- tionary computing.
Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the apparent compromises resulting
from the hybrid model created, such as the network topology.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1112.0204, arXiv:0712.4159, arXiv:0712.4153, arXiv:0712.4102,
arXiv:0910.067
Digital Ecosystems: Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures
We view Digital Ecosystems to be the digital counterparts of biological
ecosystems. Here, we are concerned with the creation of these Digital
Ecosystems, exploiting the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems
to evolve high-level software applications. Therefore, we created the Digital
Ecosystem, a novel optimisation technique inspired by biological ecosystems,
where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation, migration of
agents which are distributed in a decentralised peer-to-peer network, operating
continuously in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on
evolutionary computing that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at
finding solutions to satisfy locally relevant constraints. The Digital
Ecosystem was then measured experimentally through simulations, with measures
originating from theoretical ecology, evaluating its likeness to biological
ecosystems. This included its responsiveness to requests for applications from
the user base, as a measure of the ecological succession (ecosystem maturity).
Overall, we have advanced the understanding of Digital Ecosystems, creating
Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures where the word ecosystem is more than just a
metaphor.Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures, journa
Biology of Applied Digital Ecosystems
A primary motivation for our research in Digital Ecosystems is the desire to
exploit the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems. Ecosystems are
thought to be robust, scalable architectures that can automatically solve
complex, dynamic problems. However, the biological processes that contribute to
these properties have not been made explicit in Digital Ecosystems research.
Here, we discuss how biological properties contribute to the self-organising
features of biological ecosystems, including population dynamics, evolution, a
complex dynamic environment, and spatial distributions for generating local
interactions. The potential for exploiting these properties in artificial
systems is then considered. We suggest that several key features of biological
ecosystems have not been fully explored in existing digital ecosystems, and
discuss how mimicking these features may assist in developing robust, scalable
self-organising architectures. An example architecture, the Digital Ecosystem,
is considered in detail. The Digital Ecosystem is then measured experimentally
through simulations, with measures originating from theoretical ecology, to
confirm its likeness to a biological ecosystem. Including the responsiveness to
requests for applications from the user base, as a measure of the 'ecological
succession' (development).Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure, conferenc
Digital ecosystems
We view Digital Ecosystems to be the digital counterparts of biological ecosystems, which
are considered to be robust, self-organising and scalable architectures that can automatically
solve complex, dynamic problems. So, this work is concerned with the creation, investigation,
and optimisation of Digital Ecosystems, exploiting the self-organising properties of biological
ecosystems. First, we created the Digital Ecosystem, a novel optimisation technique inspired
by biological ecosystems, where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation,
migration of agents which are distributed in a decentralised peer-to-peer network, operating
continuously in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on evolutionary computing
that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at finding solutions to satisfy locally relevant
constraints. We then investigated its self-organising aspects, starting with an extension
to the definition of Physical Complexity to include the evolving agent populations of our
Digital Ecosystem. Next, we established stability of evolving agent populations over time,
by extending the Chli-DeWilde definition of agent stability to include evolutionary dynamics.
Further, we evaluated the diversity of the software agents within evolving agent populations,
relative to the environment provided by the user base. To conclude, we considered alternative
augmentations to optimise and accelerate our Digital Ecosystem, by studying the accelerating
effect of a clustering catalyst on the evolutionary dynamics of our Digital Ecosystem, through
the direct acceleration of the evolutionary processes. We also studied the optimising effect of
targeted migration on the ecological dynamics of our Digital Ecosystem, through the indirect
and emergent optimisation of the agent migration patterns. Overall, we have advanced the
understanding of creating Digital Ecosystems, the self-organisation that occurs within them,
and the optimisation of their Ecosystem-Oriented Architecture
Model Exploration Using OpenMOLE - a workflow engine for large scale distributed design of experiments and parameter tuning
OpenMOLE is a scientific workflow engine with a strong emphasis on workload
distribution. Workflows are designed using a high level Domain Specific
Language (DSL) built on top of Scala. It exposes natural parallelism constructs
to easily delegate the workload resulting from a workflow to a wide range of
distributed computing environments. In this work, we briefly expose the strong
assets of OpenMOLE and demonstrate its efficiency at exploring the parameter
set of an agent simulation model. We perform a multi-objective optimisation on
this model using computationally expensive Genetic Algorithms (GA). OpenMOLE
hides the complexity of designing such an experiment thanks to its DSL, and
transparently distributes the optimisation process. The example shows how an
initialisation of the GA with a population of 200,000 individuals can be
evaluated in one hour on the European Grid Infrastructure.Comment: IEEE High Performance Computing and Simulation conference 2015, Jun
2015, Amsterdam, Netherland
The role of concurrency in an evolutionary view of programming abstractions
In this paper we examine how concurrency has been embodied in mainstream
programming languages. In particular, we rely on the evolutionary talking
borrowed from biology to discuss major historical landmarks and crucial
concepts that shaped the development of programming languages. We examine the
general development process, occasionally deepening into some language, trying
to uncover evolutionary lineages related to specific programming traits. We
mainly focus on concurrency, discussing the different abstraction levels
involved in present-day concurrent programming and emphasizing the fact that
they correspond to different levels of explanation. We then comment on the role
of theoretical research on the quest for suitable programming abstractions,
recalling the importance of changing the working framework and the way of
looking every so often. This paper is not meant to be a survey of modern
mainstream programming languages: it would be very incomplete in that sense. It
aims instead at pointing out a number of remarks and connect them under an
evolutionary perspective, in order to grasp a unifying, but not simplistic,
view of the programming languages development process
The Hierarchic treatment of marine ecological information from spatial networks of benthic platforms
Measuring biodiversity simultaneously in different locations, at different temporal scales, and over wide spatial scales is of strategic importance for the improvement of our understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems and for the conservation of their biodiversity. Monitoring networks of cabled observatories, along with other docked autonomous systems (e.g., Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVs], and crawlers), are being conceived and established at a spatial scale capable of tracking energy fluxes across benthic and pelagic compartments, as well as across geographic ecotones. At the same time, optoacoustic imaging is sustaining an unprecedented expansion in marine ecological monitoring, enabling the acquisition of new biological and environmental data at an appropriate spatiotemporal scale. At this stage, one of the main problems for an effective application of these technologies is the processing, storage, and treatment of the acquired complex ecological information. Here, we provide a conceptual overview on the technological developments in the multiparametric generation, storage, and automated hierarchic treatment of biological and environmental information required to capture the spatiotemporal complexity of a marine ecosystem. In doing so, we present a pipeline of ecological data acquisition and processing in different steps and prone to automation. We also give an example of population biomass, community richness and biodiversity data computation (as indicators for ecosystem functionality) with an Internet Operated Vehicle (a mobile crawler). Finally, we discuss the software requirements for that automated data processing at the level of cyber-infrastructures with sensor calibration and control, data banking, and ingestion into large data portals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
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