Turing-complete mechanical processor via automated nonlinear system design

Abstract

Nanomechanical computers promise a greatly improved energetic efficiency compared to their electrical counterparts. However, progress towards this goal is hindered by a lack of modular components, such as logic gates or transistors, and systematic design strategies. This article describes a universal logic gate implemented as a nonlinear mass-spring-damper model, followed by an automated method to translate computations, expressed as source code of arbitrary complexity, into combinations of this basic building block. The proposed approach is validated numerically in two steps: First, a set of discrete models are generated from code. The models implement computations with increasing complexity, starting by a simple adder and ending in a 8-bit Turing complete mechanical processor. Then, the models are forward integrated to demonstrate their computing performance. The processor is validated by executing the Erathostenes' sieve algorithm to mechanically compute prime numbers.

A mechanical metamaterial with reprogrammable logical functions

“…The basic logical structure serves as a NOR gate, which is a functional-complete binary logic gate set and is capable of realizing universal combinatorial logic 37 . By programming the ReIM, three basic logic gates (NOT, OR, AND) can be obtained by combining NOR gates, as shown by the experiment and numerical simulation in Fig.…”

Complex pathways and memory in compressed corrugated sheets

“…The strict hierarchy of t-graph topologies and the more subtle effects of the relative ordering are experimentally observable and testable and provide a conceptual tool to organize the plethora of pathways observed in driven frustrated matter. Together, our work shows how hysteron interactions bring sequences of bit flips that encode forms of information processing within reach, creating opportunities for soft robotics (23)(24)(25)(26) and information processing in materials (9)(10)(11)27).…”

“…These two-state hysteretic elements switch up and down between internal states s = 0 and s = 1 when a driving field U passes through the upper and lower switching fields U + or U – (with ); the state of the hysteron for depends on its driving history. One can think of these as material bits ( 9 – 12 ) that collectively label the (meso)state of the physical system. Properties such as memory are then determined by the sequences of bit switches as function of a global driving U , which can be encoded in so-called transition graphs (t graphs), whose nodes represent the mesostates and edges represent their transitions ( 13 , 14 ).…”

Binary classification of spoken words with passive elastic metastructures

“…Recent theoretical proposals suggest that the answer to these questions is indeed affirmative, and mass-springdamper systems are in fact capable of complex computation [3,4]. In this letter, we experimentally demonstrate passive springtronic speech processing by realising an elastic metastructure [Fig.…”