CADbots: Algorithmic Aspects of Manipulating Programmable Matter with Finite Automata

TL;DR

This paper develops algorithmic methods for controlling programmable matter composed of particles with finite automata, enabling fundamental shape manipulations using minimal computational resources.

Contribution

It introduces a set of algorithms for manipulating particle arrangements with finite automata, treating the shape itself as a storage medium, akin to a geometric Turing machine.

Findings

Efficient algorithms for bounding and counting shapes

Procedures for copying, reflecting, rotating, and scaling shapes

Use of shape arrangement as a storage device for computation

Abstract

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 significant amounts of data, nor perform complex computations, and is limited to a handful of possible physical operations. We provide a toolbox for carrying out fundamental tasks on a given arrangement of tiles, using the arrangement itself as a storage device, similar to a higher-dimensional Turing machine with geometric properties. Specific results include time- and space-efficient procedures for bounding, counting, copying, reflecting, rotating or scaling a complex given shape.