What is the region occupied by a set of points?
GIScience'06 Proceedings of the 4th international conference on Geographic Information Science
Amoeba-based nonequilibrium neurocomputer utilizing fluctuations and instability
UC'07 Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Unconventional Computation
Fault tolerant network design inspired by Physarum polycephalum
Natural Computing: an international journal
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The single celled organism Physarum polycephalum efficiently constructs and minimises dynamical nutrient transport networks resembling proximity graphs. We present a model multi-agent population which collectively approximates the network behaviours of Physarum . We demonstrate spontaneous transport network formation and evolution and show that the collective population also exhibits quasi-physical emergent properties, allowing the collective population to be considered as a virtual computing material - a synthetic plasmodium. This material is used as an unconventional method to approximate spatially represented geometry problems. We demonstrate three different methods for the construction, evolution and minimisation of Physarum -like transport networks which approximate Steiner trees, relative neighbourhood graphs, convex hulls and concave hulls. The results span the Toussaint hierarchy of proximity graphs, suggesting that the foraging and minimising behaviours of Physarum reflect interplay between maximising foraging area and minimising transport distance. The properties and behaviours of the synthetic virtual plasmodium may be useful in future physical instances of unconventional computing devices, and may also provide clues to the generation of emergent computation behaviours by Physarum .