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Propagating patterns are used to transfer and process information in chemical and physical prototypes of unconventional computing devices. Logical values are represented by fronts of traveling diffusive, trigger or phase waves. We apply this concept of pattern based computation to develop experimental prototypes of computing circuits implemented in small modular robots. In the experimental prototypes the modular robots Cubelets are concatenated into channels and junction. The structures developed by Cubelets propagate signals in parallel and asynchronously. The approach is illustrated with a working circuit of a one-bit full adder. Complementarily a formalization of these constructions are developed across Sleptsov nets. Finally, a perspective to swarm dynamics is discussed., 33 pages, 23 figures, 5 tables

We demonstrate a discrete implementation of a wave-based majority gate in a chaotic Life-like cellular automaton. The gate functions via controlling of patterns' propagation into stationary channels. The gate presented is realisable in many living and non-living substrates that show wave-like activity of its space-time dynamics or pattern propagation. In the gate a symmetric pattern represents a binary value 0 while a non-symmetric pattern represents a binary value 1. Origination of the patterns and their symmetry type are encoded by the particle reactions at the beginning of computation. The patterns propagate in channels of the gate and compete for the space at the intersection of the channels. We implement 3-inputs majority gates using a W topology showing additional implementations of 5-inputs majority gates and one tree (cascade) majority gate., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables. https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789811235740_0009

Universal register machine, a formal model of computation, can be emulated on the array of the Game of Life, a two-dimensional cellular automaton. We perform spectral analysis on the computation dynamical process of the universal register machine on the Game of Life. The array is divided into small sectors and the power spectrum is calculated from the evolution in each sector. The power spectrum can be classified into four categories by its shape; null, white noise, sharp peaks, and power law. By representing the shape of power spectrum by a mark, we can visualize the activity of the sector during the computation process. For example, the track of pulse moving between components of the universal register machine and the position of frequently modified registers can be identified. This method can expose the functional difference in each region of computing machine.

Complexity has been a recurrent research topic in cellular automata because they represent systems where complex behaviors emerge from simple local interactions. A significant amount of previous research has been conducted proposing instances of complex cellular automata; however, most of the proposed methods are based on a careful search or a meticulous construction of evolution rules. This paper presents the emergence of complex behaviors based on reversible cellular automata. In particular, this paper shows that reversible cellular automata represent an adequate framework to obtain complex behaviors adding only new random states. Experimental results show that complexity can be obtained from reversible cellular automata appending a proportion of about two times more states at random than the original number of states in the reversible automaton. Thus, it is possible to obtain complex cellular automata with dozens of states. Complexity appears to be commonly obtained from reversible cellular automata, and using other operations such as permutations of states or row and column permutations in the evolution rule. The relevance of this paper is to present that reversibility can be a useful structure to implement complex behaviors in cellular automata., 26 pages, 14 figures, Submitted to: Comm Nonlinear Sci Numer Simulat

We study a cellular automaton (CA) model of information dynamics on a single hypha of a fungal mycelium. Such a filament is divided in compartments (here also called cells) by septa. These septa are invagina-tions of the cell wall and their pores allow for the flow of cytoplasm between compartments and hyphae. The septal pores of the fungal phy-lum of the Ascomycota can be closed by organelles called Woronin bod-ies. Septal closure is increased when the septa become older and when exposed to stress conditions. Thus, Woronin bodies act as informa-tional flow valves. The one-dimensional fungal automaton is a binary-state ternary neighborhood CA, where every compartment follows one of the elementary cellular automaton (ECA) rules if its pores are open and either remains in state 0 (first species of fungal automata) or its previous state (second species of fungal automata) if its pores are closed. The Woronin bodies closing the pores are also governed by ECA rules. We analyze a structure of the composition space of cell-state transition and pore-state transition rules and the complexity of fungal automata with just a few Woronin bodies, and exemplify several important local events in the automaton dynamics.

The emergence of complex behaviors in cellular automata is an area that has been widely developed in recent years with the intention to generate and analyze automata that produce space-moving patterns or gliders that interact in a periodic background. Frequently, this type of automata has been found through either an exhaustive search or a meticulous construction of the evolution rule. In this study, the specification of cellular automata with complex behaviors was obtained by utilizing randomly generated specimens. In particular, it proposed that a cellular automaton of $n$ states should be specified at random and then extended to another automaton with a higher number of states so that the original automaton operates as a periodic background where the additional states serve to define the gliders. Moreover, this study presented an explanation of this method. Furthermore, the random way of defining complex cellular automata was studied by using mean-field approximations for various states and local entropy measures. This specification was refined with a genetic algorithm to obtain specimens with a higher degree of complexity. With this methodology, it was possible to generate complex automata with hundreds of states, demonstrating that randomly defined local interactions with multiple states can construct complexity., Comment: 30 pages, 22 figures, Submitted to: Inf Sci

An elementary cellular automaton with memory is a chain of finite state machines (cells) updating their state simultaneously and by the same rule. Each cell updates its current state depending on current states of its immediate neighbours and a certain number of its own past states. Some cell-state transition rules support gliders, compact patterns of non-quiescent states translating along the chain. We present designs of logical gates, including reversible Fredkin gate and controlled NOT gate, implemented via collisions between gliders., 31 pages, 23 figures, 3 tables

A cellular automaton collider is a finite state machine build of rings of one-dimensional cellular automata. We show how a computation can be performed on the collider by exploiting interactions between gliders (particles, localisations). The constructions proposed are based on universality of elementary cellular automaton rule 110, cyclic tag systems, supercolliders, and computing on rings., 39 pages, 32 figures, 3 tables

We conduct a brief survey on Wolfram's classification, in particular related to the computing capabilities of Cellular Automata (CA) in Wolfram's classes III and IV. We formulate and shed light on the question of whether Class III systems are capable of Turing universality or may turn out to be "too hot" in practice to be controlled and programmed. We show that systems in Class III are indeed capable of computation and that there is no reason to believe that they are unable, in principle, to reach Turing-completness., Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures, forthcoming in Irreducibility and Computational Equivalence to be published by Springer Verlag (http://www.mathrix.org/ANKSAnniversaryVolume.html). Extended paper version to appear in the Journal of Cellular Automata (JCA)

We study a two-dimensional cellular automaton (CA), called Diffusion Rule (DR), which exhibits diffusion-like dynamics of propagating patterns. In computational experiments we discover a wide range of mobile and stationary localizations (gliders, oscillators, glider guns, puffer trains, etc), analyze spatio-temporal dynamics of collisions between localizations, and discuss possible applications in unconventional computing., Comment: Accepted to Journal of Cellular Automata