On formation of structures: Design examples and discussion

Abstract

This paper discusses the formation of structures by taking the process of gene transcription and translation as the template. The hypothesis of this paper is that the gene transcription and translation process can describe the formation of structures both in engineering design and in biology. The paper first presents design examples including integrated circuit (IC) chambers, flapping wings of bird robots, and typical mechanisms and formulate the formation patterns of the design process as four steps: information interpretation, selection of building blocks, the connection of building blocks, and formation of structures. The key step of the formation process is to assemble building blocks for structures both in engineering and in biology. Building blocks in biology are amino acids while they are structures in design. The autonomous degree of the formation process depends on the level of building blocks. The reuse degree of the building blocks depends on the level of building blocks too. In biology, structures of proteins are self-organized, so one way towards design automation is to use lower-level building blocks.