Vascular morphogenesis controller: a generative model for developing morphology of artificial structures.

Morphology of an artificial structure can be designed beforehand or it can be developed over time via interactions between different parts of the structure. Since structures are supposed to sustain and act in their surrounding environments, a successful generative process needs to consider both the global and local effects of environment during morphogenesis. As in their biological counterparts, many morphogenesis models are distributed over the growing structure. In this paper, a novel distributed model, called Vascular Morphogenesis Controller (VMC), is introduced by being inspired from branching mechanisms in plants where every branch of a plant acts as an autonomous agent competing with the other agents for a larger share of the resources for growth. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first explicit use of distribution of limited resources in morphogenesis process of artificial structures. The model is implemented for growing a simulated modular robot that is designed based on a physical robot. The parameters of model are successfully evolved to direct the growth of robots in different environmental condition, i.e., in harsh and calm environments, in various light conditions, and in a layered environment. The results demonstrate usability of the model despite simplicity of its logic.