Molecular Robot Control

Dr. Klaus-Peter Zauner

The Southampton University, UK

2005. 9. 27

301-520, 2:30-4:00 PM

 
Living systems are virtuosi of information processing. Not only do they maintain their intricate organisation, they also exhibit unrivalled real-time perception-action abilities. Nature elicits this information 'technology' from the unique properties of macromolecules. The nascent field of biomolecular computing aims at elucidating the mechanisms at the basis of biological computation to employ them for the realization of novel computing paradigms in fundamentally new computing devices. Applications in which integration density and power consumption are decisive factors are likely to become the early application niches for biomolecular information processing.  In recent work we have used robotics as a testbed for simple molecular controllers. Sensory signals form the macro-physical environment are transduced to molecular scale and processed using the unique micro physical features of molecular interaction and intramolecular dynamics. The result of the molecular computation are amplified to yield a macroscopic output action through the robot's actuators.  The long-term goal of this line of research are synthetic "wet-brains" enabling autonomous robotic devices on the scale of one cubic millimetre and below.

This page is maintained by Ji-seon Yoo (jsyoo@bi.snu.ac.kr).
Last update: September 27, 2005