Self-Organization and Templates

1. Self-Organization and Templates Andrew “Tookie” Matiukas

2. Self-Organization (Previously) • Self-Organization is the formation of clusters • Corpse piles • Brood Sorting • Larger Clusters grow even larger • More attractive than smaller clusters • Arbitrary Locations

3. Templates • A pattern used to create another pattern • In Swarm AI pre-existing pattern that shapes the results of the self-organization • Termite Queen and royal chamber • Brood pile and the ant nest

4. Termite Template • Workers deposit pellets around the queen • Pheromone emitted by the queen controls distance from her • Pellets have own pheromone • Causes self-organization of the workers • Column building behavior • Queen pheromone overrides the pellets

5. Ant Templates • Templates can also be natural gradients • Temperature gradient • Acantholepsis custodiens moves eggs, larvae, and pupae as temperature changes in the hill • Image unavailable (look at board)

6. Math Models of Royal Chamber Construction • Changes in concentration of pellet pheromone is a function of: • Number of pellets • Pheromone decay • Pheromone diffusion

7. Math Models of Royal Chamber Construction (continued) • Density of termites with pellets is a function of: • Inflow of loaded termites (temporary constant flow) • Amount of deposited pellets • Random movement of termites • Attractiveness of pheromone gradient

8. Notes on the Model • Columns do not always form • Caused by too few termites (low density of workers) • Rate of pellets dropped too low • Model does not show observed double movement • Same results none the less

9. ?Questions?