NAVIGATING COMPLEX LABYRINTHS - OPTIMAL PATHS FROM CHEMICAL WAVES

The properties of excitable media are exploited to find minimum-length paths in complex labyrinths. Optimal pathways are experimentally dete rmined by the collection of time-lapse position information on chemica l waves propagating through mazes prepared with the Belousov-Zhabotins ky reaction. The corresponding velocity fields provide maps of optimal paths from every point in an image grid to a particular target point. Collisions of waves that were temporarily separated by obstacles mark boundary lines between significantly different paths with the same ab solute distance. The pathfinding algorithm is tested in very complex m azes with a simple reaction-diffusion model.