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 `livingʹ machines. We first present a general overview of bio-inspired systems and the POE model that classifies bioinspired 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 faulttolerant 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 BioWallʹs computational tissue is presented. We conclude the paper with a description of bio-inspired computing tissues and POEtic machines.