INSPIRE Track 1: Sensing and Computing with Oscillating Chemical Reactions

该INSPIRE奖由材料研究部的聚合物计划和计算与通信基础部的软件和硬件基础计划共同资助，并由数学和物理科学理事会多学科活动办公室提供额外资助。技术概要该项目的目的是为“计算材料”的新研究方向奠定基础。 为了实现这一目标，工作将集中在开发集成的传感，计算和响应系统，通过使用非线性振荡化学反应来执行时空处理和识别任务。将被考虑用于这些任务的特定材料是经历振荡Belousov-Zhabotinsky（BZ）反应的聚合物凝胶;这些材料是柔性的和刺激响应的，并且包含不同的振荡域。这些凝胶中BZ反应的时间相干性将被利用来执行存储或学习模式集与以光、压力或化学模式形式的输入刺激之间的关联处理。输入模式和振荡器之间的有效共振将被用作基本计算范例。实际上，这些研究的目的将是“让物理学做计算”。因此，该研究将使系统的设计，其中动态吸引子的行为将使快速收敛到解决方案成为可能。因此，这些材料系统将以可编程的方式对其环境做出响应。这些新材料系统的开发-能够自主感知，通信和响应环境变化-将为材料和计算机科学界之间的新互动提供机会。这项工作的首要目标是将计算平台从由大量异构部件组成的台式机或甚至手持式移动的设备转变为用新材料系统构建并实现新计算范例的计算“结构”。理想的计算材料应该重量轻，机械兼容，并能感知和响应人类的触摸和运动，以便执行一定程度的计算，丰富用户的生活。此外，该材料将以相对自主的方式执行这些“感测，计算和响应”功能，使其能够在不连接外部电源的情况下运行。这项工作旨在通过研究能量转换的软材料（如振荡化学凝胶）和计算模式（如非布尔关联处理）的共同进化来实现这些目标，这些模式可以利用这些材料的特性。这项工作的影响将是一个新的“计算材料”领域的核心;也就是说，计算机和材料是同一个实体的系统。创造能够感知环境，处理信息并对复杂刺激做出反应的智能材料的能力应该能够使新系统与人类交互，为智能服装，机器人操纵器和可能的假肢提供触觉，温度和光子输入。

This INSPIRE award is co-funded by the Polymers Program of the Division of Materials Research and the Software and Hardware Foundations Program of the Division of Computing and Communications Foundations, with additional contributions from the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences.TECHNICAL SUMMARY The aim of this project is to lay the foundations for new research directions in "materials that compute". To achieve this goal the work will focus on developing integrated sensing, computing and responsive systems by using non-linear oscillating chemical reactions to perform spatio-temporal processing and recognition tasks. The specific materials that will be considered for these tasks are polymer gels undergoing the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction; these materials are flexible and stimuli-responsive and encompass distinct oscillating domains. The temporal coherence of the BZ reactions in these gels will be harnessed to perform associative processing between sets of stored or learned patterns and input stimuli in the form of patterns of light, pressure, or chemistry. The effective resonance between the input patterns and the oscillators will be used as the basic computation paradigm. In effect, the aim of the studies will be to "let the physics do the computing". Hence, the research will enable the design of systems where the behavior of dynamic attractors will make possible rapid convergence to the solution. Consequently, these materials systems will respond to their environment in programmable ways. The development of these new materials systems -- which are capable of autonomously sensing, communicating, and responding to environmental changes -- will provide an opportunity for new interactions between the materials and computer science communities. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY The overarching goal of this work is to transform computing platforms away from desktops or even hand-held mobile appliances fabricated from a large collection of heterogeneous parts to a computational "fabric" built with new material systems and implementing new computational paradigms. The ideal computing material would be lightweight and mechanically compliant, and would sense and respond to human touch and motion in order to perform a level of computing that will enrich the lives of its users. Furthermore, the material would perform these "sense, compute and respond" functions in a relatively autonomous manner, enabling it to operate without connections to an external power supply. This work seeks to achieve these objectives by investigating the co-evolution of energy-transducing, soft materials, such as oscillating chemical gels, and modes of computation, such as non-Boolean associative processing, which can exploit these materials characteristics. The impact of this work will be to nucleate a new field of "materials that compute"; that is, systems where the computer and the material are one and the same entity. The ability to create smart materials that can sense the environment, process information and react to complex stimuli should enable new systems that will interface with humans to provide tactile, temperature, and photonic inputs to smart clothing, robotic manipulators and possibly prosthetic limbs.