Department of Computer Science
Programming the Swarm
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Sponsored by the National Science Foundation |
evans@cs.virginia.edu
Selvin George
selvin@cs.virginia.edu
A Cell Program is essentially a list of cell state descriptions.
Each state is described by:
Each transition consists of an optional chemical condition list followed by the actions that the cell will take. Each chemical
condition compares a chemical-name with a fixed concentration value or another chemical-name e.g. (A > 5), (A < B) etc., in an optional direction.
The actions are cell division, state change as well as emission, diffusion and storage of chemicals.
An example of a transition is shown below:
(alive < 1) from any direction & (A > 1) -> (body, body) in same direction;
This is interpreted by the cell as "if I received alive chemical with a concentration greater than 1.0 from any direction and A's net chemical
concentration greater than 1, then I divide to form 2 cells in state body. The newly created daughter cell (i.e. 2nd body) will be placed onto the same direction.
The BNF for the Cell Programming Language is given below
| parseInput | ::= | ( cellProgram ) <EOF> |
| cellProgram | ::= | ( stateDescription )+ |
| stateDescription | ::= | <STATE> ( <IDENTIFIER> ) <LBRACE> ( <COLOR> ( color ) )? ( <EMITS> ( emissionList ) )? ( <DIFFUSES> ( emissionList ) )? <TRANSITIONS> ( transitionList ) <RBRACE> |
| color | ::= | ( ( number ) ( number ) ( number ) ) |
| emissionList | ::= | ( ( emission ) ( <COMMA> emission )* ) |
| emission | ::= | ( ( <LPAREN> ( <IDENTIFIER> ) <COMMA> ( number ) <RPAREN> ( emissionDirection )? ) ) |
| | | ( ( <LPAREN> ( <IDENTIFIER> ) <MINUS> ( number ) <RPAREN> ( emissionDirection )? ) ) | |
| emissionDirection | ::= | ( <IN> ( ( <XPLUS> ) | ( <XMINUS> ) | ( <YPLUS> ) | ( <YMINUS> ) | ( <ZPLUS> ) | ( <ZMINUS> ) | ( <SAME> <DIRECTION> ) | ( <OPPOSITE> <DIRECTION> ) | ( <ALL> <DIRECTIONS> ) | ( <PERPENDICULAR> <DIRECTIONS> ) ) ) |
| transitionList | ::= | ( transition <SEMICOLON> )+ |
| transition | ::= | ( ( chemicalConditionList )? <TO> ( ( division ) | ( stateChange ) | ( <DIE> ) ) ( <EMITS> ( emissionList ) )? ( <STORES> ( emissionList ) )? ( <STORES> ( emissionList ) )? ) |
| division | ::= | ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <COMMA> <IDENTIFIER> <RPAREN> typeCellDivision ) |
| stateChange | ::= | ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <RPAREN> ) |
| chemicalConditionList | ::= | ( ( chemicalCondition ) ( <AND> chemicalCondition )* ) |
| chemicalCondition | ::= | ( ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <LT> number <RPAREN> ( chemConditionDirection )? ) ) |
| | | ( ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <GT> number <RPAREN> ( chemConditionDirection )? ) ) | |
| | | ( ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <EQUALS> number <RPAREN> ( chemConditionDirection )? ) ) | |
| | | ( ( <LPAREN> <IDENTIFIER> <LT> <IDENTIFIER> <RPAREN> ( chemConditionDirection )? ) ) | |
| chemConditionDirection | ::= | ( <FROM> ( ( <XPLUS> ) | ( <XMINUS> ) | ( <YPLUS> ) | ( <YMINUS> ) | ( <ZPLUS> ) | ( <ZMINUS> ) | ( <ANY> <DIRECTION> ) | ( <SAME> <DIRECTION> ) | ( <OPPOSITE> <DIRECTION> ) ) ) |
| typeCellDivision | ::= | ( <IN> ( ( <XPLUS> ) | ( <XMINUS> ) | ( <YPLUS> ) | ( <YMINUS> ) | ( <ZPLUS> ) | ( <ZMINUS> ) | ( <SAME> <DIRECTION> ) | ( <OPPOSITE> <DIRECTION> ) ) ) |
| number | ::= | ( <INTEGER_LITERAL> ) |
| | | ( <FLOATING_POINT_LITERAL> ) |
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University of Virginia Department of Computer Science Programming the Swarm |
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David Evans evans@cs.virginia.edu Selvin George selvin@cs.virginia.edu |