UROL:EN Emergent Energetic Regulation in Dynamic Biological Networks

UROL:EN 动态生物网络中的紧急能量调节

• 批准号: 2222418
• 负责人: Simon Garnier
• 金额: $ 299.92万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2222418&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: UROL; EN; Emergent; Energetic; Regulation

Regulation mechanisms are essential for keeping systems within desired working conditions. For instance, body temperature in humans is regulated by a complex network of neurons and hormones that control heat production (e.g., through metabolic activity) and loss (e.g., through sweating) to avoid fatal hypo- or hyperthermia. Typical biological and engineered regulation mechanisms take the form of circuits that connect sensors to actuators in a predictable way (e.g., a thermostat in an air conditioning system). However, systems that are composed of many loosely connected and mobile units (e.g., a colony of ants or a fleet of autonomous robots) rarely exhibit long-lasting connections that could support such rigid regulatory circuits. In this context, this collaborative research brings together biologists, theoreticians, and engineers to achieve two goals: understand how highly plastic collective systems regulate themselves in the face of changes (using energetic regulation in ants as a model system), and derive general principles to engineer artificial distributed systems that can autonomously regulate their collective activities to maintain function in uncertain environments. The project will also give students ranging from K-12 to Ph.D. an opportunity to learn how social systems succeed and fail at regulating themselves, and how fundamental knowledge of natural processes can lead to new technological developments and applications in engineering.The project has three complementary components. In Component 1, the researchers will perform laboratory experiments with ants to investigate whether biological collectives exhibit energetic regulation in response to both weak and strong variations in energy demand and availability, and how this impacts their biological productivity. These studies will combine computer vision-assisted behavioral observations to measure the individual and collective behaviors of the ants and physiological measurements to determine the dynamics of their energetic states. In Component 2, the result of the laboratory experiments will be used to develop a network-theoretic framework to elucidate and engineer energetic regulation in distributed and highly dynamic collectives of self-organizing units. The goal will be to design generalizable abstractions that allow for theoretical analysis to determine what behavioral rules lead to successful collective regulation or to its failure. Finally, in Component 3, the researchers will design engineering solutions for collective energy management in robotic swarms and evaluate their efficiency in simulations and in experiments with actual robots. The goal is to build a swarm that will be capable of optimally balancing energetic supply and demand, even in dynamical and unpredictable working environments. Ultimately, this effort will lead to establishing a new paradigm for better understanding how loosely connected units can nonetheless collectively maintain function and homeostasis, despite experiencing fluctuations in their energetic requirements and/or their ability to exploit resources.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

调节机制对于保持系统在理想的工作条件下是必不可少的。例如，人类的体温是由一个复杂的神经元和激素网络调节的，这些神经元和激素控制着热量的产生（例如，通过代谢活动）和损失（例如，通过出汗），以避免致命的低体温或高热。典型的生物和工程调节机制采用电路的形式，以可预测的方式将传感器连接到执行器（例如，空调系统中的恒温器）。然而，由许多松散连接和移动单元组成的系统（例如，一群蚂蚁或一群自主机器人）很少表现出能够支持这种严格监管电路的持久连接。在这种背景下，这项合作研究将生物学家、理论家和工程师聚集在一起，以实现两个目标：了解高度可塑性的集体系统在面对变化时如何自我调节（使用蚂蚁的能量调节作为模型系统），并推导出设计人工分布式系统的一般原则，该系统可以自主调节其集体活动，以在不确定的环境中保持功能。该项目还将为从K-12到博士的学生提供一个机会，让他们了解社会系统在自我调节方面是如何成功和失败的，以及自然过程的基础知识如何导致新的技术发展和工程应用。该项目有三个互补的组成部分。在第一部分中，研究人员将对蚂蚁进行实验室实验，以研究生物集体是否对能量需求和可用性的强弱变化都表现出能量调节，以及这如何影响它们的生物生产力。这些研究将结合计算机视觉辅助的行为观察来测量蚂蚁的个体和集体行为，以及生理测量来确定它们的能量状态的动态。在第二部分中，实验室实验的结果将用于开发网络理论框架，以阐明和设计自组织单元的分布式和高度动态集体中的能量调节。我们的目标将是设计出可概括的抽象概念，允许进行理论分析，以确定哪些行为规则会导致集体监管的成功或失败。最后，在组件3中，研究人员将设计机器人群体集体能量管理的工程解决方案，并在模拟和实际机器人实验中评估其效率。目标是建立一个群体，即使在动态和不可预测的工作环境中，也能以最佳方式平衡能源供应和需求。最终，这一努力将导致建立一个新的范例，以更好地理解松散连接的单位如何在经历能量需求和/或开发资源的能力波动的情况下，集体维持功能和体内平衡。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。