Cellular and Natural Computing Models and Software Simulation - Systematic Design for Emergence in Cellular Nonlinear Networks - page 14

3
Cellular and Natural Computing Models
and Software Simulation
3.1 Cellular Systems: Cells, Neighborhoods, States
and Dynamics
The main features of cellular systems are regularity and homogeneity . In fact a
cellular system can be defined as a structured collection of identical elements
called cells . The structure of a cellular computing system is given by the choice of
a lattice. Such lattices are one-dimensional, two-dimensional and, less used, three
or more dimensional. The following are examples of commonly used two-
dimensional lattices:
Fig. 3.1. Cells, lattices, neighborhoods and indexes
In the above pictures, the cells in the neighborhood are depicted in lighter gray
shade, with the exception of the central cell. The neighborhood represents the set