Title: Abstractions for Distributed Construction Behavior
Abstract: I will present our work on representations of the external world that can be used to design construction algorithms and to model biological construction behavior. The common thread is that the mathematical representation is a key first step as it determines any sort of proof that could be performed for algorithm design and what aspects of animal behavior can be modeled. I will present two examples of ongoing projects and discuss the compromises that our chosen representations entail. The first is a system of reactive terrain modification robots and the second is modeling nest construction in bees.