EAGER: RF Control of Biological Systems -- Bio-enabled Wireless Sensor Networks

该项目的中期目标是开发一个由传感设备组成的生物传感器网络（BSN），该传感设备可以进入完全睡眠模式，但仍然被远程射频信号唤醒。这个想法是将微弱的电磁信号转换成生物信号，并使用生物设备来解调嵌入在电磁信号中的信息。该项目的短期目标是在无线传感器网络（WSN）的特定背景下，为生物通信和计算的潜力制定一个清晰的愿景，并阐明研究路径和以下问题的初步答案。电磁能量收集的基本限制是什么？在无线传感器网络中地址识别的具体情况下，生物过程分布式网络的计算、通信的潜力、手段和限制是什么？此外，节点内网络生物通信和计算，唤醒机制由于其高延迟和容量有限而导致优化问题。如何将混合型、生物型和周期性唤醒机制结合起来以满足系统要求？在无线传感器网络中使用生物有机体的可行性是什么？生物和分子通信与计算领域的研究有望彻底改变计算机科学、生物学、电子工程和机械工程领域。该项目旨在获得初步结果，并组建一个具有计算、通信、网络、生物学和纳米力学专业知识的跨学科团队，撰写一份具有清晰、重点突出和现实目标的完整提案，以开发原型BSN。

The medium-term goal of this project is to develop a Bio-enabled Sensor Network (BSN) composed of sensing devices that can enter a full sleep mode but still be woken up by a long-range RF signal. The idea is to transduce a weak Electro-Magnetic signal into biological signals and use a biological device to demodulate the information embedded in the EM signal. The short-term goal of this project is to develop a clear vision for the potential of biological communications and computation in the specific context of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and articulate a research path and preliminary answers to the following questions. What are the fundamental limits of EM energy harvesting? In the specific case of address recognition in WSN, what are the potential, means and limits of computation, communication, of a distributed network of biological processes? Beyond, the intra-node networked bio-communications and computation, the wake-up mechanism results in optimization problems because of its high delay and limited capacity. How can hybrid, biological and periodic, wake up mechanisms be combined to satisfy the system requirements? What is the viability of using biological organisms in WSNs? Research in biological and molecular communications and computation holds the promise to revolutionize and bridge the fields of computer science, biology, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. The PI aims at obtaining preliminary results, and assembling a cross-disciplinary team with expertise in computation, communication, networking, biology, and nano-mechanics, to write a full proposal with clear, focused, and realistic objectives to develop a prototype BSN.