A reaction-diffusion cellular automata model for mycelium-based engineered living materials evolution

Tompris, Ioannis; Chatzipaschalis, Ioannis K.; Chatzinikolaou, Theodoros Panagiotis; Fyrigos, Iosif-Angelos; Tsompanas, Michail-Antisthenis; Adamatzky, Andrew; Ayres, Phil; Sirakoulis, Georgios Ch.

Abstract

Engineered living materials (ELMs) and, more specifically, mycelium-based ELMs have been proposed as a solution to address the escalating societal pressures related to human-induced environmental disruption, scarcity of resources, and the anticipated increase in mate­ rial demand. However, due to the complex biological mechanisms they emulate, their environmental sensitivity, slow supply chain and regulations, these devices present significant challenges for reproduction. Consequently, modeling the phenomena underlying such devices becomes critically important. In this context, we introduce a comprehensive mycelium-based ELM framework that incorporates reaction-diffusion processes and the modeling tool of Cellular Automata (CA). This frame­ work successfully simulates the ELM's unpredictable growth mechanisms and closely resembles the mycelium's biological structure through the exploitation of the reaction-diffusion activator-inhibitor system. Finally, an augmented 3D version is presented that enhances the realism of our findings and strives to provide a deeper understanding of such materials.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: ACRI2024 - International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry
• Start Date: Sep 9, 2024
• End Date: Sep 11, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Jun 16, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 2, 2024
• Publication Date: Sep 2, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 11, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 3, 2025
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 253-264
• Series Title: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Series ISSN: 0302-9743
• ISBN: 9783031715518
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71552-5_21
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/12881698
• Additional Information: First Online: 2 September 2024; Conference Acronym: ACRI; Conference Name: International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry; Conference City: Florence; Conference Country: Italy; Conference Year: 2024; Conference Start Date: 9 September 2024; Conference End Date: 11 September 2024; Conference Number: 16; Conference ID: acri2024; Conference URL: https://acri2024.complexworld.net/