Evolving physical self-assembling systems in two-dimensions

Abstract. Primarily top-down design methodologies have been used to create physical self-assembling systems. As the sophistication of these systems increases, it will be more challenging to deploy top-down de-sign, due to self-assembly being an algorithmically NP-complete problem. Alternatively, we present a nature-inspired approach incorporating evo-lutionary computing, to couple bottom-up construction (self-assembly) with bottom-up design (evolution). We also present two experiments where evolved virtual component sets are fabricated using rapid proto-typing and placed on the surface of an orbital shaking tray, their envi-ronment. The successful results demonstrate how this approach can be used for evolving physical self-assembling systems in two-dimensions