Physicomimetics
Encyclopedia
Physicomimetics is derived from physis
– φύσις (Greek
for "nature" or "the science of physics") and mimesis
- μίμησις (Greek for "imitation").
In response to growing concerns that single monolithic robotic vehicles are expensive, brittle, and vulnerable, there has been a trend towards the development of distributed networks of small, inexpensive vehicles. The capability of these networks to dynamically monitor and sense environmental conditions while maintaining cost-effectiveness, robustness, and flexibility, is considered to be among their greatest assets.
Dynamic sensor networks are critically needed for various tasks such as search and rescue, surveillance, perimeter defense, locating and mapping of chemical and biological hazards, virtual space telescopes, automated assembly of micro-electromechanical systems, and medical surgery (e.g., with nanobots).
The core technology used to achieve these goals is a novel approach referred to as "artificial physics" or "physicomimetics". With physicomimetics, robotic agents perceive and react to artificial physics forces. By synthesizing the appropriate virtual forces, various important task-driven behaviors can be effectively achieved, such as lattice-shaped distributed antennas, perimeter defense, and dynamic surveillance. Furthermore the systems self-organize, can self-repair, and are fault-tolerant . Recently the paradigm has been adapted to function optimization .
The motivation for this approach is that any system designed using the laws of physics is amenable to the full gamut of empirical, analytical, and theoretical analysis tools used by physicists. This approach was first introduced by Professors William Spear and Diana Spears at the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of Wyoming. The first paper on this approach was published by them in 1999 at the IEEE International Conference on Information, Intelligence, and Systems. and the title was "Using Artificial Physics to Control Agents" .
Physis
Physis is a Greek theological, philosophical, and scientific term usually translated into English as "nature."In The Odyssey, Homer uses the word once , referring to the intrinsic way of growth of a particular species of plant. In the pre-Socratic philosophers it developed a complex of other...
– φύσις (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
for "nature" or "the science of physics") and mimesis
Mimesis
Mimesis , from μιμεῖσθαι , "to imitate," from μῖμος , "imitator, actor") is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the...
- μίμησις (Greek for "imitation").
In response to growing concerns that single monolithic robotic vehicles are expensive, brittle, and vulnerable, there has been a trend towards the development of distributed networks of small, inexpensive vehicles. The capability of these networks to dynamically monitor and sense environmental conditions while maintaining cost-effectiveness, robustness, and flexibility, is considered to be among their greatest assets.
Dynamic sensor networks are critically needed for various tasks such as search and rescue, surveillance, perimeter defense, locating and mapping of chemical and biological hazards, virtual space telescopes, automated assembly of micro-electromechanical systems, and medical surgery (e.g., with nanobots).
The core technology used to achieve these goals is a novel approach referred to as "artificial physics" or "physicomimetics". With physicomimetics, robotic agents perceive and react to artificial physics forces. By synthesizing the appropriate virtual forces, various important task-driven behaviors can be effectively achieved, such as lattice-shaped distributed antennas, perimeter defense, and dynamic surveillance. Furthermore the systems self-organize, can self-repair, and are fault-tolerant . Recently the paradigm has been adapted to function optimization .
The motivation for this approach is that any system designed using the laws of physics is amenable to the full gamut of empirical, analytical, and theoretical analysis tools used by physicists. This approach was first introduced by Professors William Spear and Diana Spears at the Naval Research Laboratory and the University of Wyoming. The first paper on this approach was published by them in 1999 at the IEEE International Conference on Information, Intelligence, and Systems. and the title was "Using Artificial Physics to Control Agents" .