Transducers, 'smarts' and cellular slime molds

摘要

The modular architecture offered by modern transducer standards like the IEEE 1451.4, is being deployed in systems of varying size with plug and play capability. The standards provide the devices with means that allows them to be identified, configured and managed locally using standardized software components like the Transducer Block. This is what meant by the term "Smart Transducer". Substantial economic and technical benefits accrue from the use of Smart Transducers that allow designers and users to better address their applications instead of the underlying infrastructure. As the infrastructure advances in sophistication, it provides a foundation for still further powerful advances in system and application architecture. An intriguing aspect of this development is that such a structure opens the door for future cooperative systems. Such system would be similar to those suggested by primitive biological entities like the slime models of the Dictyostelium class. These organisms operate as independent cells at an early stage of their life cycle but are able to self organize to form complex organisms under appropriate conditions. We posit that smart transducer systems may be on the threshold of developing such capabilities.