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The self-construction and -repair of a foraging organism by explicitly specified development from a single cell


Roth, Fabian; Siegelmann, Hava; Douglas, Rodney J (2007). The self-construction and -repair of a foraging organism by explicitly specified development from a single cell. Artificial Life, 13(4):347-368.

Abstract

As man-made systems become more complex and autonomous, there is a growing need for novel engineering methods that offer self-construction, adaptation to the environment, and self-repair. In a step towards developing such methods, we demonstrate how a sim- ple model multicellular organism can assemble itself by replication from a single cell, and finally express a fundamental behavior: foraging. Previous studies have employed evolu- tionary approaches to this problem. Instead, we aim at explicit design of self-constructing and -repairing systems by hierarchical specification of elementary intracellular mecha- nisms via a kind of genetic code. The interplay between individual cells and the gradually increasing self-created complexity of the local structure that surrounds them causes the se- rial unfolding of the final functional organism. The developed structure continuously feeds back to the development process, and so the system is also capable of self-repair.

Abstract

As man-made systems become more complex and autonomous, there is a growing need for novel engineering methods that offer self-construction, adaptation to the environment, and self-repair. In a step towards developing such methods, we demonstrate how a sim- ple model multicellular organism can assemble itself by replication from a single cell, and finally express a fundamental behavior: foraging. Previous studies have employed evolu- tionary approaches to this problem. Instead, we aim at explicit design of self-constructing and -repairing systems by hierarchical specification of elementary intracellular mecha- nisms via a kind of genetic code. The interplay between individual cells and the gradually increasing self-created complexity of the local structure that surrounds them causes the se- rial unfolding of the final functional organism. The developed structure continuously feeds back to the development process, and so the system is also capable of self-repair.

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Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:07 Faculty of Science > Institute of Neuroinformatics
Dewey Decimal Classification:570 Life sciences; biology
Scopus Subject Areas:Life Sciences > General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Physical Sciences > Artificial Intelligence
Language:English
Date:2007
Deposited On:21 Mar 2014 13:24
Last Modified:24 Jan 2022 03:44
Publisher:MIT Press
ISSN:1064-5462
OA Status:Green
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1162/artl.2007.13.4.347
PubMed ID:17716016
  • Content: Published Version