Abstract We introduce staged self-assembly of Wang tiles, where tiles can be added dynamically in sequence and where intermediate constructions can be stored for later mixing. This model and its various constraints and performance measures are motivated by a practical nanofabrication scenario through protein-based bioengineering. Staging allows us to break through the traditional lower bounds in tile self-assembly by encoding the shape in the staging algorithm instead of the tiles. All of our results are based on the  Nat Comput (2008) 7:347-370 DOI 10.1007 practical assumption that only a constant number of glues, and thus only a constant number of tiles, can be engineered. Under this assumption, traditional tile self-assembly cannot even manufacture an n 9 n square; in contrast, we show how staged assembly in theory enables manufacture of arbitrary shapes in a variety of precise formulations of the model.
In 2008, Demaine et al. REF introduced the staged tile self-assembly model which is based on the 2HAM.
Staged self-assembly: nanomanufacture of arbitrary shapes with O(1) glues
Natural Computing
Natural Computing
Computer Science Mathematics