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Science 327 (5964): 439-442

Copyright © 2010 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design

Atsushi Tero,1,2 Seiji Takagi,1 Tetsu Saigusa,3 Kentaro Ito,1 Dan P. Bebber,4 Mark D. Fricker,4 Kenji Yumiki,5 Ryo Kobayashi,5,6 Toshiyuki Nakagaki1,6,*

Abstract: Transport networks are ubiquitous in both social and biological systems. Robust network performance involves a complex trade-off involving cost, transport efficiency, and fault tolerance. Biological networks have been honed by many cycles of evolutionary selection pressure and are likely to yield reasonable solutions to such combinatorial optimization problems. Furthermore, they develop without centralized control and may represent a readily scalable solution for growing networks in general. We show that the slime mold Physarum polycephalum forms networks with comparable efficiency, fault tolerance, and cost to those of real-world infrastructure networks—in this case, the Tokyo rail system. The core mechanisms needed for adaptive network formation can be captured in a biologically inspired mathematical model that may be useful to guide network construction in other domains.

1 Research Institute for Electronic Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0812, Japan.
2 PRESTO, JST, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan.
3 Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
4 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK.
5 Department of Mathematical and Life Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan.
6 JST, CREST, 5 Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0075, Japan.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nakagaki{at}es.hokudai.ac.jp

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