Fast algorithm for stochastic tree computation

Abstract

In this paper, a recursive algorithm that can build complex tree structure quickly is presented briefly. The plant structural growth is based on a dual-scale automaton, in which ‘macrostate’ and ‘microstate’ are used to simulate the growth unit and the metamers inside growth unit separately. Each state is characterized by its ‘physiological age’. The automaton is non-deterministic in case that the probabilities exist in each growth cycle simulating the bud activity. Since the main plant structure and branches are statistically similar, and each structure can be decomposed into an axis and substructures, simulation is begun from smallest structures that have no further branch, and that information are used when such kind of structures appear in other branches. To keep the diversity of tree structure, several stochastic structures will be simulated at one time for a given physiological and chronological age. This algorithm can save a lot of time compared to node-by-node simulation. Verification is done both in organ number counting and visualization.