Introduction to Molecular Robotics~Its Perspectives and Motivation
Satoshi Murata1
1Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-1 Aobayama,Sendai, 980-8579, Japan
Keywords: Molecular Robotics, DNA nanoengineering
The Molecular Robotics is a novel research area aiming at establishing systematicconstruction methodologies of building systems of chemical devices and nanostructures
such as DNA logic gates, DNA nanostructures and molecular motors. In this talk, I
would like to introduce the basic concept and research direction of molecular robotics.
[1] S. Murata, A. Konagaya, S. Kobayashi, H. Saito, M. Hagiya, Molecular Robotics: A
New Paradigm for Artifacts, New Generation Computing, 31, 27-45
Ohmsha, Ltd. and Springer (2013).
[2] http://www.molbot.org/

Slime Mold Molecular Robots and Gellular Automata
Masami Hagiya 1
hagiya@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

1

Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,
University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bukyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

Keywords: Molecular robotic, Gel, DNA gel, Soft matter, Molecular computing, DNA computing,
Cellular automata
The Slime Mold Team of the Molecular Robotics Project [2,3] aims at constructing molecularrobots with gels as actuators and bodies of robots. Such molecular robots are called slime moldrobots. In the evolution scenario of molecular robots [2], slime mold robots belong to the second
generation in which molecular robots are scaled up to millimeter sizes. They are expected toprocess and amplify molecular and other kinds of signals to drive gel actuators, which makeconformational changes to robot bodies and eventually result in motions such as locomotion. In
this talk, after explaining the concept of slime mold robots that underlies the research of the team,I briefly introduce research contributions the team has made so far, including some pieces of workon DNA-based hydrogels. I then talk about a mathematical model that is expected to be used todesign slime mold robots and analyze their computational power [1]. The model is called “gellularautomata”, in which solutions are separated into cells by walls made of gels. Reactions occurringin a cell may produce molecules that dissolve or construct gel walls and merge or separate
solutions in the neighboring cells. The model is intended to introduce discrete aspects to the gelspace for ease of design. It is also expected to overcome the problem of slow diffusion of large
molecules such as DNA inside a gel by introducing hybrid of solutions and gels. Cells of solutions
will eventually drive surrounding gel walls as actuators.
[1] Hagiya, M., Wang, S., Kawamata, I., Murata, S., Isokawa, T., Peper, F., and Imai, K., On
DNA-based gellular automata, The 13th International Conference on Unconventional
Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC '14), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014.
[2] Murata, S., Konagaya, A., Kobayashi, S., Saito, H., and Hagiya, M., Molecular robotics: a newparadigm for artifacts, New Generation Computing, 31:27-45. 2013.
[3] Hagiya, M., Konagaya, A., Kobayashi, S., Saito, H., and Murata, S., Molecular robots withsensors and intelligence, Accounts of Chemical Research, ACS, to appear.

Perspectives and objectives of amoeba-type molecularrobots
Akihiko Konagaya 1
kona@dis.titech.ac.jp
1

Department of Computational Intelligence, Tokyo Institute of Technology,4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan

Keywords: molecular robotics, giant liposome, molecular sensor, molecular actuator
The Amoeba Robot team aims at developing an amoeba -like molecular robot with molecularsensors, a molecular controller and molecular actuators enveloped in a molecular container [1].
The amoeba robots are considered the first generation in the scenario of molecular robot evolution[2]. The main challenge for the construction of amoeba -type molecular robots is system integrationof molecular components in a molecular container. Giant lipo some is one of the most promisingmolecular containers for amoeba-type molecular robots, although much has been remained in thedesign of liposome with sensing facilities including photo-reactors and magnetic field reactors aswell as DNA channels for small molecules. As for the molecular actuators, a microtubule-kinesin
based actuator and an actin filament-myosin based actuator are currently studied. In each actuator,
DNA tags or DNA information will play an important role in molecular integration. Integration ofadvanced molecular sensing systems and molecular control systems is a remaining issue in ourfuture work.
[1] Hagiya, M., Konagaya, A., Kobayashi, S., Saito, H., and Murata, S., Molecular robots withsensors and intelligence, Accounts of Chemical Research, ACS, to appear.
[2] Murata, S., Konagaya, A., Kobayashi, S., Saito, H., and Hagiya, M., Molecular robotics: a newparadigm for artifacts, New Generation Computing, 31:27-45. 2013.