Robustness and emerging topology in material flow networks

Networks of infrastructures are essential to most biological and technical systems to support the transport of energy or material. Remarkably, these systems share the same notions of functional modules, like a transport infrastructure (a cytoskeleton, venes, as well as roads, railways or conveyor belts) individual mobile transport units (motor proteins, ants, trucks or transfer cars), buffers for intermediate storage,and other modules, well-known in engineering. Looking into more detail, it turns out, that these networks are subjected to several physical constraints. Furthermore, all transport networks are challenged by the necessity of covering a set of destinations, an area or volume while guaranteeing a certain flow and dealing with the tradeoff between keeping the construction and maintenance costs low while simultaneously maximizing the reliability and robustness of the network. We have analyzed structural properties and topological measures including motif distributions of different material flow networks, among them baggage handling systems in modern airports and other technical material handling systems in comparision to biological transport networks. By considering the given topological restraints we see, that the design (or evolution) of certain robustness gives rise to a striking similarity in overall network topologies. Furthermore, we gathered insigths into the close interdependence of adaptive control strategies with the underlying network topology. Thus we demonstrate that network analysis, optimization and decentralized control based on biological principles and complex network theory has an immediate impact on the design of properties like robustness, stability or the performance of technical systems.

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