Capturing membrane computing by ASMs

Abstract

Natural computing is a field of research that tries to imitate the ways of “computing” in nature. Membrane computing is a branch of natural computing that exploits hierarchically nested membrane structures that are associated with multisets of objects. The key notion is the P-system, which describes the transitions by rules for the creation, elimination and wandering of objects through membranes as well as manipulation of the membrane structure as such. In this short paper we sketch how P-systems can be captured by parallel ASMs. We further give a glimpse of further generalisations in several directions.