Collaborative Research: A Unified Cellular Self-Organizing Approach to Design Automation and Operation of Complex Systems

这个研究奖项的目标是创建一个新的细胞自组织的泛化，作为一种自动化设计和控制复杂和跨学科系统的方法。进化、细胞组织和自组织行为等自然概念为研究提供了灵感。研究人员正在创建一个基于四个要素的软件框架：图形、字段、规则和规则决策。图形用于定义系统架构和维度，并存在于基于三维物理的模拟器环境中，具有相关的内部状态变量（位置、速度、加速度、温度、应力等）。规则和规则决策控制图形如何响应状态变量和外部场效应（如重力或温度），以模仿真实的物理和生物效应。计算框架将启用？cyber-physical边界?易移动：容易移动例如，该框架可以作为设计自动化工具，在制造前设计设备（虚拟模拟设备的环境），也可以作为设备实际操作中的控制系统，使设备能够适应环境的变化。这将通过从外部传感器监控真实世界的字段并转换生成的可重构设备的图形或配置来实现。该研究是在单一方法下对各种已发表的技术（如元胞自动机、拓扑优化和粘土电子学）的推广。这样的框架对于解决诸如机电一体化和机器人技术等跨学科和多物理场设计问题是必要的。调查结果将广泛传播，以期产生最大影响。

This objective of this research award is to create a new generalization of cellular self-organization as a way to automate the design and control of complex and interdisciplinary systems. Concepts from nature such as evolution, cellular organization, and self-organizing behavior serve as the inspiration for the research. The researchers are creating a software framework built on four elements: graphs, fields, rules, and rule decisions. The graphs are used to define system architecture and dimensions and exist within a three-dimensional physics-based simulator environment with pertinent internal state variables (positions, velocities, accelerations, temperatures, stresses, etc.). Rules and rule decisions govern how graphs change in response to state variables and external field effects like gravity or temperature in a manner that mimics true physical and biological effects. The computational framework will enable the ?cyber-physical boundary? to be easily shifted. For example, the framework would serve as a design automation tool to design a device before fabrication (simulating the environment of the device virtually) and also used as a control system for the device in actual operation so that the device might adapt to changes in the environment. This would occur by monitoring real-world fields from external sensors and transforming the graph or configuration of the resulting reconfigurable device. The research is a generalization of various published techniques (e.g. cellular automaton, topology optimization, and claytronics) under a single method. Such a framework is necessary for solving interdisciplinary and multi-physics design problems such as those found in mechatronics and robotics. The results will be widely disseminated for greatest impact.