Modeling and simulation of the interaction of plants with the environment using l-systems and their extensions

The simulation of plant-environment interactions has been recognized as one of the main problems in the domain of plant modeling. This dissertation presents the results of my work, which include recognizing general mechanisms of the interaction between a real plant and its environment and incorporating them into an existing plant modeling formalism based on Lindenmayer systems (L-systems). The first step was the extension of the L-system formalism by the introduction of environmentally-sensitive L-systems which are able to simulate the development of a plant affected by the environment. The next step was the design of a modeling framework which can capture all aspects of the plant-environment interaction, including the effects of the plant on the environment. This framework consists of two separate processes, one simulating the plant and the other modeling the environment. The L-system formalism is extended by creating open L-systems which can communicate with the environment through a well defined interface. The communication library provided with the framework makes it easy to create new programs simulating the environment. The modeling capabilites of both environmentally-sensitive L-systems and the framework based on open L-systems are validated on many examples of plant models interacting with their environment. Most of these examples reproduce results presented in the literature proving the usability of the proposed modeling framework. Many of the models are modified, improving the realism of their visualization by incorporating various new graphical features of the modeling software, or making the algorithms which simulate the environment more effective.