Galapagos Natural Venation Challenge

The goal:

Find the ideal route between FOOD and BASE.

Method:

Several points representing FOOD will be placed on a plane.

One point representing the BASE will be placed at the origin of the same plane.

Rules:

1. All FOOD must connect eventually to the BASE using veins.
2. A vein is represented by a rectangle around a centerline. Its initial diameter (width of the rectangle) is constant.
3. Veins can join together on their way to base, forming a single vein. The diameter of the new vein will be the sum of previous diameters multiplied by 0.9 (more efficient).

Objectives (fitness):

Minimize the tree's total vein surface area.

The area of the 1st tree is 414 and of the 2nd is 479, so obviously it's not a good design.

All of the above can be translated to 3D, using tubes and volume measures instead of surface area. I think that solving it in 2D is hard enough for now.

This process has implications in the design world. It's also a good way of creating trees that are more "natural" than L-System trees, if we are able to find the right parameters.

I hope that someone will find an elegant way to solve this challenge (maybe with Line Charge??). More accurate rules will be gratefully accepted.