On the Impact of Variation on Self-Organizing Systems

The goal of this work is to gain a better understanding of the role that inter-agent variation plays in self-organizing systems. We develop both continuous and discrete models of a multi-agent coordination procedure based on response thresholds and use these models to analyze the average behavior of a system as well as examine the dynamics of single instances of the problem. Results indicate that variation in the behaviors of agents can lead to increased stability and more effective self-organization in cooperative multi-agent systems.