Possibility of controlling self-organized patterns with totalistic cellular automata consisting of both rules like Game of Life and rules producing turing patterns

Abstract

The basic rules of self-organization using a totalistic cellular automaton (CA) were investigated, for which the cell state was determined by summing the states of neighboring cells, like in Conway's Game of Life. This study used a short-range and long-range summation of the cell states around the focal cell. These resemble reaction-diffusion (RD) equations, in which self-organizing behavior emerges from interactions between an activating factor and an inhibiting factor. In addition, Game-of-Life-type rules, in which a cell cannot survive when adjoined by too many or too few living cells, were applied. Our model was able to mimic patterns characteristic of biological cells, including movement, growth, and reproduction. This result suggests the possibility of controlling self-organized patterns. Our model can also be applied to the control of engineering systems, such as multirobot swarms and self-assembling microrobots.