MANIPULATING PLANAR SHAPES WITH A LIGHT-SENSITIVE EXCITABLE MEDIUM: COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF CLOSED-LOOP SYSTEMS

Abstract

We study how to employ space-time dynamics in nonlinear media to achieve distributed manipulation of objects — positioning, orienting and transporting objects by wave-fronts and patterns in excitable medium. We present the results of computational experiments of a massive parallel actuator controlled by a cellular-automaton model of an excitable medium. The model incorporates closed-loop actuation where sites of the medium can be excited not only by their closest neighbors but also by the edges of the manipulated object. We analyze motion of basic planar shapes (either initially aligned along axes or randomly oriented) induced by an actuator controlled by excitable lattice with various excitation rules. We demonstrate that space-time excitation dynamics in discrete nonlinear media bears a huge potential in terms of sensible nontrivial manipulation of planar shapes.