A synthetic DNA based approach to design of adaptive systems

Development of large engineered systems involves large amount of investments. Yet the value of these systems decreases significantly as requirements and environments change. For mission critical systems the capability of adapting to unpredictable situations is the key for success. While the importance of system adaptability has been recognized, little research has been done for “design for adaptability”. We take a “naturalistic design” approach to developing adaptive “lifelike” systems by exploiting natural “design” processes and mimicking its DNA based way of capturing, representing and applying “design” information pertaining to needed functions and changing operational situations. The concepts and examples of this approach are discussed.