Programmable Constructive Swarms

Closed Computer Science Games Engineering Bachelor Master Project Thesis No Affiliation

Tasks:

In this project, a swarm model will be created where the agents drop implicit surface „metaballs“ to assemble diverse 3D artifacts based on local interaction rules, e.g. based on the agents’ internal state and their environment. In combination with a target point or area, the execution of one or several such behavioural rules will result in different kinds of constructions in different contexts. For instance, a simple construction rule might lead to the construction of a spherical hull based on a simulated pheromone gradient whenever a metaball is dropped within a certain threshold, to upright piles of metaballs (towers) whenever metaballs are simply built on one another, or a plane floor whenever metaballs are glued to each other horizontally. Higher level constructions can be performed by recording and playing arbitrary, timed or event-driven construction sequences, replaying one or many rules of construction at different stages of a process. From the start, the swarm, the construction processes and resulting artifacts need to be visualised to help debugging the model, to engineer and test low-level construction rules and high-level construction rule sets and sequences. An analysis of the complexities of behaviours, processes and artifacts will provide the basis for evaluating the built model instances and to identify future work.

Contact Persons at the University Würzburg