Self Organising Communication Networks in an Amorphous Computer Amorphous computing and MEMs research will enable novel applications of computing coupled with the environment. For example smart paint that detects shadows on a wall, bridge surfaces that detect load, sensors that monitor chemical concentrations in the soil, or an airplane wing covered with sensors and actuators that reduce. In such environments an important goal is to self-organise global information through collaboration between large number of elements, each of which has limited resources and little global knowledge.
Communication is an important problem.
Most algorithms for control require some communication beyond the local neighbors. In such environments with so many components, human intervention is not possible. It is not possible to incrementally add pieces, or assign IP addresses from a centralized source. Therefore the communication network must self organise and be self repairing. An area network uses the Post Office paradigm.