Slime mould foraging behaviour as optically coupled logical operations

Adamatzky, A.; Mayne, R.; Mayne, Richard; Adamatzky, Andrew

Abstract

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Physarum polycephalum is a macroscopic plasmodial slime mould whose apparently 'intelligent' behaviour patterns may be interpreted as computation. We employ plasmodial phototactic responses to construct laboratory prototypes of NOT and NAND logical gates with electrical inputs/outputs and optical coupling in which the slime mould plays dual roles of computing device and electrical conductor. Slime mould logical gates are fault tolerant and resettable. The results presented here demonstrate the malleability and resilience of biological systems and highlight how the innate behaviour patterns of living substrates may be used to implement useful computation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 27, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 22, 2016
• Journal: International Journal of General Systems
• Print ISSN: 0308-1079
• Electronic ISSN: 1563-5104
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 305-313
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03081079.2014.997528
• Keywords: physarum polycephalum, slime mould, photoavoidance, logic gate
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/843247
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03081079.2014.997528
• Contract Date: Mar 22, 2016