Autonomous Agents

We argue that living systems process information such that functionality emerges in them on acontinuous basis. We then provide a framework that can explain and model the normativity of biological functionality. In addition we offer an explanation of the anticipatory nature of functionalitywithin our overall approach. We appeal to a Peircean approach to semiotics, and especially toBiosemiotics, as well as to a dynamical approach to Digital-Analog relations and the interplaybetween different levels of functionality in autonomous systems, taking an integrative approach. Wethen apply the underlying logic to a particular biological system, giving a model of the BCR signalingsystem, in order to demonstrate how biosemiotic concepts can be used to build an account of biological information and functionality. Next we show how this framework can be used to explainand model more complex aspects of biological normativity, for example, how cross-talk betweendifferent signaling pathways can be avoided. Overall, we describe a robust theoretical framework forthe emergence of normative functions and, consequently, for the way information is transducedacross several interconnected organizational levels in an autonomous system, and we demonstratehow this can be applied in real biological phenomena. Our aim is to open the way towards realistictools for the modeling of information and normativity in autonomous biological agents.

The present paper proposes a unified geometric framework for coordinated motion on Lie groups. It first gives a general problem formulation and analyzes ensuing conditions for coordinated motion. Then, it introduces a precise method to design control laws in fully actuated and underactuated settings with simple integrator dynamics. It thereby shows that coordination can be studied in a systematic way