Bio-inspired computing tissues: towards machines that evolve, grow, and learn

Biological inspiration in the design of computing machines could allow the creation of new machines with promising characteristics such as fault-tolerance, self-replication or cloning, reproduction, evolution, adaptation and learning, and growth. The aim of this paper is to introduce bio-inspired computing tissues that might constitute a key concept for the implementation of 'living' machines. We first present a general overview of bio-inspired systems and the POE model that classifies bio-inspired machines along three axes. The Embryonics project-inspired by some of the basic processes of molecular biology-is described by means of the BioWatch application, a fault-tolerant and self-repairable watch. The main characteristics of the Embryonics project are the multicellular organization, the cellular differentiation, and the self-repair capabilities. The BioWall is intended as a reconfigurable computing tissue, capable of interacting with its environment by means of a large number of touch-sensitive elements coupled with a color display. For illustrative purposes, a large-scale implementation of the BioWatch on the BioWall's computational tissue is presented. We conclude the paper with a description of bio-inspired computing tissues and POEtic machines. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.