On plant roots logical gates

Andrew Adamatzky; Georgios Ch Sirakoulis; Genaro J Martínez; Frantisek Baluška; Stefano Mancuso

doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.04.002

On plant roots logical gates

Biosystems. 2017 Jun-Jul:156-157:40-45. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.04.002. Epub 2017 Apr 17.

Authors

Andrew Adamatzky¹, Georgios Ch Sirakoulis², Genaro J Martínez³, Frantisek Baluška⁴, Stefano Mancuso⁵

Affiliations

¹ Unconventional Computing Laboratory, UWE, Bristol, UK. Electronic address: andrew.adamatzky@uwe.ac.uk.
² Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece; Unconventional Computing Laboratory, UWE, Bristol, UK.
³ Superior School of Computer Sciences, National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico; Unconventional Computing Laboratory, UWE, Bristol, UK.
⁴ Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bonn, Germany.
⁵ International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, University of Florence, Italy.

PMID: 28428118
DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2017.04.002

Abstract

Theoretical constructs of logical gates implemented with plant roots are morphological computing asynchronous devices. Values of Boolean variables are represented by plant roots. A presence of a plant root at a given site symbolises the logical True, an absence the logical False. Logical functions are calculated via interaction between roots. Two types of two-inputs-two-outputs gates are proposed: a gate 〈x, y〉→〈xy, x+y〉 where root apexes are guided by gravity and a gate 〈x,y〉→〈x¯y,x〉 where root apexes are guided by humidity. We propose a design of binary half-adder based on the gates.

Keywords: Logical gates; Plant roots; Unconventional computing.