Nicholson's blowflies revisited: A fuzzy modeling approach

Iosef Rashkovsky, Michael Margaliot*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

We apply fuzzy modeling to derive a mathematical model for a biological phenomenon: the regulation of population size in the Australian sheep-blowfly Lucilia cuprina. This behavior was described by several ethologists and fuzzy modeling allows us to transform their verbal descriptions into a well-defined mathematical model. The behavior of the resulting mathematical model, as studied using both simulations and rigorous analysis, is congruent with the behavior actually observed in nature. We believe that the fuzzy modeling approach demonstrated here may supply a suitable framework for biomimicry, that is, the design of artificial systems based on mimicking natural behavior.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1083-1096
Number of pages14
JournalFuzzy Sets and Systems
Volume158
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 16 May 2007

Keywords

  • Biomimicry
  • Differential equations with time-delay
  • Emergent behavior
  • Linguistic modeling
  • Periodic behavior
  • Population dynamics
  • Switched systems with time delay

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