Toward Biologically-Inspired Self-Healing, Resilient Architectures for Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems and Embedded Devices

Digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems in safety-related applications of next generation industrial automation systems require high levels of resilience against different fault classes. One of the more essential concepts for achieving this goal is the notion of resilient and survivable digital I&C systems. In recent years, self-healing concepts based on biological physiology have received attention for the design of robust digital systems. However, many of these approaches have not been architected from the outset with safety in mind, nor have they been targeted for the automation community where a significant need exists. This dissertation presents a new self-healing digital I&C architecture called BioSymPLe, inspired from the way nature responds, defends and heals: the stem cells in the immune system of living organisms, the life cycle of the living cell, and the pathway from Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to protein. The BioSymPLe architecture is integrating biological concepts, fault tolerance techniques, and operational schematics for the international standard IEC 61131-3 to facilitate adoption in the automation industry. BioSymPLe is organized into three hierarchical levels: the local function migration layer from the top side, the critical service layer in the middle, and the global function migration layer from the bottom side. The local layer is used to monitor the correct execution of functions at the cellular level and to activate healing mechanisms at the critical service level. The critical layer is allocating a group of functional B cells which represent the building block that executes the intended functionality of critical application based on the expression for DNA genetic codes stored inside each cell. The global layer uses a concept of embryonic stem cells by differentiating these type of cells to repair the faulty T cells and supervising all repair mechanisms. Finally, two industrial applications have been mapped on the proposed architecture, which are capable of tolerating a significant number of faults (transient, permanent, and hardware common cause failures CCFs) that can stem from environmental disturbances and we believe the nexus of its concepts can positively impact the next generation of critical systems in the automation industry

Embryonic Architecture with Built-in Self-test and GA Evolved Configuration Data

The embryonic architecture, which draws inspirationfrom the biological process of ontogeny, has built-inmechanisms for self-repair. The entire genome is stored in theembryonic cells, allowing the data to be replicated in healthycells in the event of a single cell failure in the embryonic fabric.A specially designed genetic algorithm (GA) is used to evolve theconfiguration information for embryonic cells. Any failed embryoniccell must be indicated via the proposed Built-in Self-test(BIST) the module of the embryonic fabric. This paper recommendsan effective centralized BIST design for a novel embryonic fabric.Every embryonic cell is scanned by the proposed BIST in casethe self-test mode is activated. The centralized BIST design usesless hardware than if it were integrated into each embryoniccell. To reduce the size of the data, the genome or configurationdata of each embryonic cell is decoded using Cartesian GeneticProgramming (CGP). The GA is tested for the 1-bit adder and2-bit comparator circuits that are implemented in the embryoniccell. Fault detection is possible at every function of the cell due tothe BIST module’s design. The CGP format can also offer gate-levelfault detection. Customized GA and BIST are combinedwith the novel embryonic architecture. In the embryonic cell, self-repairis accomplished via data scrubbing for transient errors

Immunotronics - novel finite-state-machine architectures with built-in self-test using self-nonself differentiation

A novel approach to hardware fault tolerance is demonstrated that takes inspiration from the human immune system as a method of fault detection. The human immune system is a remarkable system of interacting cells and organs that protect the body from invasion and maintains reliable operation even in the presence of invading bacteria or viruses. This paper seeks to address the field of electronic hardware fault tolerance from an immunological perspective with the aim of showing how novel methods based upon the operation of the immune system can both complement and create new approaches to the development of fault detection mechanisms for reliable hardware systems. In particular, it is shown that by use of partial matching, as prevalent in biological systems, high fault coverage can be achieved with the added advantage of reducing memory requirements. The development of a generic finite-state-machine immunization procedure is discussed that allows any system that can be represented in such a manner to be "immunized" against the occurrence of faulty operation. This is demonstrated by the creation of an immunized decade counter that can detect the presence of faults in real tim

Embryonic Architecture with Built-in Self-test and GA Evolved Configuration Data

The embryonic architecture, which draws inspiration from the biological process of ontogeny, has built-in mechanisms for self-repair. The entire genome is stored in the embryonic cells, allowing the data to be replicated in healthy cells in the event of a single cell failure in the embryonic fabric. A specially designed genetic algorithm (GA) is used to evolve the configuration information for embryonic cells. Any failed embryonic cell must be indicated via the proposed Built-in Selftest (BIST) the module of the embryonic fabric. This paper recommends an effective centralized BIST design for a novel embryonic fabric. Every embryonic cell is scanned by the proposed BIST in case the self-test mode is activated. The centralized BIST design uses less hardware than if it were integrated into each embryonic cell. To reduce the size of the data, the genome or configuration data of each embryonic cell is decoded using Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP). The GA is tested for the 1-bit adder and 2-bit comparator circuits that are implemented in the embryonic cell. Fault detection is possible at every function of the cell due to the BIST module’s design. The CGP format can also offer gate-level fault detection. Customized GA and BIST are combined with the novel embryonic architecture. In the embryonic cell, self-repair is accomplished via data scrubbing for transient errors

Microfluidic devices for cell cultivation and proliferation

Microfluidic technology provides precise, controlled-environment, cost-effective, compact, integrated, and high-throughput microsystems that are promising substitutes for conventional biological laboratory methods. In recent years, microfluidic cell culture devices have been used for applications such as tissue engineering, diagnostics, drug screening, immunology, cancer studies, stem cell proliferation and differentiation, and neurite guidance. Microfluidic technology allows dynamic cell culture in microperfusion systems to deliver continuous nutrient supplies for long term cell culture. It offers many opportunities to mimic the cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions of tissues by creating gradient concentrations of biochemical signals such as growth factors, chemokines, and hormones. Other applications of cell cultivation in microfluidic systems include high resolution cell patterning on a modified substrate with adhesive patterns and the reconstruction of complicated tissue architectures. In this review, recent advances in microfluidic platforms for cell culturing and proliferation, for both simple monolayer (2D) cell seeding processes and 3D configurations as accurate models of in vivo conditions, are examined

Ontogenetic Development and Fault Tolerance in the POEtic Tissue

In this article, we introduce the approach to the realization of ontogenetic development and fault tolerance that will be implemented in the POEtic tissue, a novel reconfigurable digital circuit dedicated to the realization of bio-inspired systems. The modelization in electronic hardware of the developmental process of multi-cellular biological organisms is an approach that could become extremely useful in the implementation of highly complex systems, where concepts such as self-organization and fault tolerance are key issues. The concepts presented in this article represent an attempt at finding a useful set of mechanisms to allow the implementation in digital hardware of a bio-inspired developmental process with a reasonable overhead

Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine 2019:The Role of Biofabrication-A Year in Review

Despite its relative youth, biofabrication is unceasingly expanding by assimilating the contributions from various disciplinary areas and their technological advances. Those developments have spawned the range of available options to produce structures with complex geometries while accurately manipulating and controlling cell behavior. As it evolves, biofabrication impacts other research fields, allowing the fabrication of tissue models of increased complexity that more closely resemble the dynamics of living tissue. The recent blooming and evolutions in biofabrication have opened new windows and perspectives that could aid the translational struggle in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) applications. Based on similar methodologies applied in past years' reviews, we identified the most high-impact publications and reviewed the major concepts, findings, and research outcomes in the context of advancement beyond the state-of-the-art in the field. We first aim to clarify the confusion in terminology and concepts in biofabrication to therefore introduce the striking evolutions in three-dimensional and four-dimensional bioprinting of tissues. We conclude with a short discussion on the future outlooks for innovation that biofabrication could bring to TERM research