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It was suggested that a programmable matter system (composed of multiple computationally weak mobile particles) should remain connected at all times since otherwise, reconnection is difficult and may be impossible. At the same time, it was…
The amoebot model abstracts active programmable matter as a collection of simple computational elements called amoebots that interact locally to collectively achieve tasks of coordination and movement. Since its introduction at SPAA 2014, a…
Imagine coating buildings and bridges with smart particles (also coined smart paint) that monitor structural integrity and sense and report on traffic and wind loads, leading to technology that could do such inspection jobs faster and…
The idea behind universal coating is to have a thin layer of a specific substance covering an object of any shape so that one can measure a certain condition (like temperature or cracks) at any spot on the surface of the object without…
The decomposition of complex structures into simpler substructures is a powerful technique with a wide range of applications. We study the computation of decompositions in the context of programmable matter. The amoebot model is a…
Within simulations of molecules deposited on a surface we show that neuroevolutionary learning can design particles and time-dependent protocols to promote self-assembly, without input from physical concepts such as thermal equilibrium or…
We consider an extension to the geometric amoebot model that allows amoebots to form so-called \emph{circuits}. Given a connected amoebot structure, a circuit is a subgraph formed by the amoebots that permits the instant transmission of…
We contribute results for a set of fundamental problems in the context of programmable matter by presenting algorithmic methods for evaluating and manipulating a collective of particles by a finite automaton that can neither store…
Shape formation has been recently studied in distributed systems of programmable particles. In this paper we consider the shape recovery problem of restoring the shape when $f$ of the $n$ particles have crashed. We focus on the basic line…
Direct design of complex functional materials would revolutionize technologies ranging from printable organs to novel clean energy devices. However, even incremental steps towards designing functional materials have proven challenging. If…
In systems of active programmable matter, individual modules require a constant supply of energy to participate in the system's collective behavior. These systems are often powered by an external energy source accessible by at least one…
At the cutting edge of materials science, matter is designed to self-organize into structures that perform a wide range of functions. The past two decades have witnessed major innovations in the versatility of building blocks, ranging from…
The question how complex systems become more organized and efficient with time is open. Examples are, the formation of elementary particles from pure energy, the formation of atoms from particles, the formation of stars and galaxies, the…
We present local distributed, stochastic algorithms for \emph{alignment} in self-organizing particle systems (SOPS) on two-dimensional lattices, where particles occupy unique sites on the lattice, and particles can make spatial moves to…
In micro- and nano-scale systems, particles can be moved by using an external force like gravity or a magnetic field. In the presence of adhesive particles that can attach to each other, the challenge is to decide whether a shape is…
We investigate a discrete model consisting of self-propelled particles that obey simple interaction rules. We show that this model can self-organize and exhibit coherent localized solutions in one- and in two-dimensions.In one-dimension,…
A model of a geometric algorithm is introduced and methodology of its operation is presented for the dynamic partitioning of data spaces.
We study the power of uncontrolled random molecular movement in the nubot model of self-assembly. The nubot model is an asynchronous nondeterministic cellular automaton augmented with rigid-body movement rules (push/pull, deterministically…
In this work, we study theoretical models of \emph{programmable matter} systems. The systems under consideration consist of spherical modules, kept together by magnetic forces and able to perform two minimal mechanical operations (or…
The amoebot model [Derakhshandeh et al., 2014] has been proposed as a model for programmable matter consisting of tiny, robotic elements called amoebots. We consider the reconfigurable circuit extension [Feldmann et al., JCB 2022] of the…