An introduction to automata network theory -- Arrays, automata and groups — Some interconnections -- Local maps -- Threshold networks and generalizations -- Computation on finite networks of automata -- Systolic algorithms for path-finding problems -- An overview of the firing squad synchronization problem -- Representation of knowledge and learning on automata networks -- Random Boolean nets and disordered systems.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 14th Spring School of the LITP (Laboratoire d`Informatique Théorique et de Programmation, Université Paris VI-VII, CNRS) held May 12-16, 1986 in Argelès-Village on the French Catalan coast. This meeting was organized by C. Choffrut, M. Nivat, F. Robert, P. Sallé and gathered a hundred participants. The proceedings of the last two Spring Schools have already been published in this series and deal with "Automata on Infinite Words" (LNCS 192) and "Combinators and Functional Programming Languages" (LNCS 242). The purpose of this yearly meeting is to present the state of the art in a specific topic which has gained considerable maturity. The field chosen this year was the theory of automata networks. Though the content of this book is essentially restricted to computer science aspects of the topic, illustrations were given at the meeting on how the model of cellular automata could be used to solve problems in statistical, fluid and solid state mechanics. Applications to biology with growth models also exist.