BIOLOGISTICS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR EFFICIENCY: CONCEPTS AND PERSPECTIVES

Dirk Helbing (), Andreas Deutsch, Stefan Diez, Karsten Peters, Yannis Kalaidzidis, Kathrin Padberg-Gehle, Stefan Lämmer, Anders Johansson, Georg Breier, Frank Schulze and Marino Zerial ()
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Dirk Helbing: ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland;
Andreas Deutsch: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Stefan Diez: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
Karsten Peters: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Yannis Kalaidzidis: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
Kathrin Padberg-Gehle: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Stefan Lämmer: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Anders Johansson: ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
Georg Breier: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Frank Schulze: Dresden University of Technology, Germany
Marino Zerial: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2009, vol. 12, issue 06, 533-548

Abstract: The growth of world population, limitation of resources, economic problems, and environmental issues force engineers to develop increasingly efficient solutions for logistic systems. Pure optimization for efficiency, however, has often led to technical solutions that are vulnerable to variations in supply and demand, and to perturbations. In contrast, nature already provides a large variety of efficient, flexible, and robust logistic solutions. Can we utilize biological principles to design systems, which can flexibly adapt to hardly predictable, fluctuating conditions? We propose a bio-inspired "BioLogistics" approach to deduce dynamic organization processes and principles of adaptive self-control from biological systems, and to transfer them to man-made logistics (including nanologistics), using principles of modularity, self-assembly, self-organization, and decentralized coordination. Conversely, logistic models can help revealing the logic of biological processes at the systems level.

Keywords: Logistics; transportation; bio-inspired solutions; robustness; self-control; modularity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219525909002374

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