We propose that bio-inspired algorithms are best developed and analysed in the context of a multidisciplinary conceptual framework that provides for sophisticated biological models and well-founded analytical principles, and we outline such a framework here, in the context of AIS network models. We further propose ways to unify several domains into a common meta-framework, in the context of AIS population models. We finally hint at the possibility of a novel instantiation of such a meta-framework, thereby allowing the building of a specific computational framework that is inspired by biology, but not restricted to any one particular biological domain.
full paper : PDF 248K | [ revised and extended journal version ]
@inproceedings(SS-ICARIS-04, author = "Susan Stepney and Robert E. Smith and Jonathan Timmis and Andy M. Tyrrell", title = "Towards a Conceptual Framework for Artificial Immune Systems", pages = "53--64", crossref = "ICARIS-04" ) @proceedings(ICARIS-04, title = "ICARIS 2004: Third International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems, Sicily, September 2004", booktitle = "ICARIS 2004: Third International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems, Sicily, September 2004", editor = "Giuseppe Nicosia and Vincenzo Cutello and Peter J. Bentley and Jon Timmis", series = "LNCS", volume = 3239, publisher = "Springer", year = 2004 )