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Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design

The true slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, develops as a vascular network of protoplasm, connecting node-like sources of food in an effort to solve multi-objective transport problems. The organism first establishes a dense and continuous mesh, reinforcing optimal pathways over time through constru...

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Autores principales: Kay, Raphael, Mattacchione, Anthony, Katrycz, Charlie, Hatton, Benjamin D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8789834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35079107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05439-w
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author Kay, Raphael
Mattacchione, Anthony
Katrycz, Charlie
Hatton, Benjamin D.
author_facet Kay, Raphael
Mattacchione, Anthony
Katrycz, Charlie
Hatton, Benjamin D.
author_sort Kay, Raphael
collection PubMed
description The true slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, develops as a vascular network of protoplasm, connecting node-like sources of food in an effort to solve multi-objective transport problems. The organism first establishes a dense and continuous mesh, reinforcing optimal pathways over time through constructive feedbacks of protoplasmic streaming. Resolved vascular morphologies are the result of an evolutionarily-refined mechanism of computation, which can serve as a versatile biological model for network design at the urban scale. Existing digital Physarum models typically use positive reinforcement mechanisms to capture meshing and refinement behaviours simultaneously. While these automations generate accurate descriptions of sensory and constructive feedback, they limit stepwise design control, reducing flexibility and applicability. A model that decouples the two “phases” of Physarum behaviour would enable multistage control over network growth. Here we introduce such a system, first by producing a site-responsive mesh from a population of nutrient-attracted agents, and then by independently calculating from it a flexible, proximity-defined shortest-walk to produce a final network. We develop and map networks within existing urban environments that perform similarly to those biologically grown, establishing a versatile tool for bio-inspired urban network design.
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spelling pubmed-87898342022-01-27 Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design Kay, Raphael Mattacchione, Anthony Katrycz, Charlie Hatton, Benjamin D. Sci Rep Article The true slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, develops as a vascular network of protoplasm, connecting node-like sources of food in an effort to solve multi-objective transport problems. The organism first establishes a dense and continuous mesh, reinforcing optimal pathways over time through constructive feedbacks of protoplasmic streaming. Resolved vascular morphologies are the result of an evolutionarily-refined mechanism of computation, which can serve as a versatile biological model for network design at the urban scale. Existing digital Physarum models typically use positive reinforcement mechanisms to capture meshing and refinement behaviours simultaneously. While these automations generate accurate descriptions of sensory and constructive feedback, they limit stepwise design control, reducing flexibility and applicability. A model that decouples the two “phases” of Physarum behaviour would enable multistage control over network growth. Here we introduce such a system, first by producing a site-responsive mesh from a population of nutrient-attracted agents, and then by independently calculating from it a flexible, proximity-defined shortest-walk to produce a final network. We develop and map networks within existing urban environments that perform similarly to those biologically grown, establishing a versatile tool for bio-inspired urban network design. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-01-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8789834/ /pubmed/35079107 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05439-w Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Kay, Raphael
Mattacchione, Anthony
Katrycz, Charlie
Hatton, Benjamin D.
Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title_full Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title_fullStr Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title_full_unstemmed Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title_short Stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
title_sort stepwise slime mould growth as a template for urban design
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8789834/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35079107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05439-w
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