Swarm Chemistry

Abstract

We propose swarm chemistry, a new artificial chemistry framework that uses artificial swarm populations as chemical reactants. Reaction in swarm chemistry is not determined by predefined reaction rules as commonly assumed in typical artificial chemistry studies, but is spontaneously achieved by the emergence of a new spatiotemporal pattern of collective behavior through the kinetic interaction between multiple chemical species. We developed a prototype of an interactive simulation tool with which one can explore the dynamics of swarm chemistry using an interactive evolutionary method. Several preliminary results are reported to illustrate the characteristics and effectiveness of this framework, including spontaneous segregation of distinct chemical species, production and restriction of movements, and interactive design of complex biological-looking structures.