Dynamic Structuring in Cellular Self-Organizing Systems

Abstract

Conventional mechanical systems composed of various modules and parts are ofteninherently inadequate for dealing with unforeseeable changing situations. Takingadvantage of the flexibility of multi-agent systems, a cellular self-organizing(CSO) systems approach has been proposed, in which mechanical cells or agentsself-organize themselves as the environment and tasks change based on a set ofrules. To enable CSO systems to deal with more realistic tasks, a two-field mechanismis introduced to describe task and agents complexities and to investigatehow social rules among agents can influence CSO system performance with increasingtask complexity. The simulation results of case studies based on the proposedmechanism provide insights into task-driven dynamic structures and theireffect on the behavior, and consequently the function, of CSO systems.