One-Dimensional Discrete Pattern Formation

One-dimensional discrete patterns are relatively simple to describe. However, constructing distributed algorithms by which simple agents can self-organize such patterns involves some interesting challenges whose solutions provide insight into more complex local-to-global problems. This coding exercise walks you through the construction of some basic 1-D pattern formation algorithms. It is divided into four problems, each of which addresses a fundamental issue in local-to-global programming. (There is also an extra credit problem, which could if extended properly by the basis of a good final project as well.) This exercise will be posted on the CS266 website in the morning of Monday, 11/13/2006. Write-ups will be due in class on Thursday, 11/30/2006. Find a coding-buddy and work on the exercise in pairs: the thinking and coding should be shared, but everyone must produce their own write-up. The coding should be done in the Matlab simulation environment that I have developed and distributed, and I’d like you to produce the write-ups using the Matlab publication feature. If you’re absolutely bent on using another coding environment, that’s OK. But please re-port your results back into Matlab for the write up – unless you want to use Mathematica and its native publication feature, which is also nice. (Should you choose to do this, please make sure to faithfully replicate the data structures!)