Current Simulations

Nanofactory

Our first non-test simulations focus on design issues related to the development of a series of nanofactory mechanisms. Nanofactories, also called assemblers, are seen as one of the most important (potential) milestones in the field of nanotechnology. They are machines that build products using direct molecular manipulation. An illustrative movie of a nanofactory (sponsored by Nanorex) is available on Google Video. A slideshow is available here, and the hi-res movie is here [86.1 Mb Quicktime]. The film depicts an animated view of a nanofactory and demonstrates key steps in a process that converts simple molecules into (as one example of a product) a billion-CPU laptop computer.

The simulations are conducted in coordination with Dr. Damian Allis, and will focus on the following mechanisms:

  • Sorting rotor - what sorts specific molecules from a mixed feedstock (in the movie, see 1min25sec - 1min40sec). The biochemical analogue of the sorting rotor is a protein binding pocket. The design issue for the sorting rotor is the identification of "binding pockets" that favorably sort many different types of molecules (including molecules that only weakly bind to other molecules, such as acetylene).
  • Delivery wheel - what captures and delivers the feedstock molecules into the assembly process (1min40sec - 2min00sec). As the purpose is to provide an uninterrupted supply of feedstock molecules for the deposition process, the design issue here is the binding and retention, with orientation, of feedstock molecules to the tooltip assembly.
  • Abstraction - pulling select atoms off a molecule to prepare it for deposition (2min00sec - 2min15sec). This section shares similar design criteria with common "molecular chemistry", as mechanosynthetic reactions will be designed that bring "abstractor" structures into close contact with the bound feedstock and break chemical bonds to prepare the feedstock for deposition.
  • Deposition - depositing the prepared molecule onto the product (2min15sec - 2min33sec). For reasons that will be elaborated on as the simulations are designed, this section is very likely the most resource-consuming and theoretically complicated aspect of all of the nanofactory steps.

Simulation detail pages:
Nanofactory_1 - search for dimer tooltip failure modes

HiveArena

In HiveArena, contestants enter their nanobots into the NanoHive-1 simulation space, and compete against each other to achieve a contest-specific goal. The goals can vary - here are some examples:
  • Speed-race. Winner goes from A to B in the shortest time
  • Last-man-standing. Winner is the bot, or swarm, that has disassembled/absorbed the other contestants
  • X-virus-challenge. Winners are the bots, or swarms, that have disassembled/absorbed a specific population of hostile nanobots (viruses) that have unique molecular signatures, amidst a larger population of nanobots, all supplied by the game

The NanoHive@Home participants would, of course, get to see the contests un-fold before anyone else via the screensaver animations. And since the visual part of the simulation results are quite like movies, the teams and individuals that crunched work units towards the simulation could appear in the credits at the end, listed in order from most work units crunched to least. Winning teams could get to decide which songs to put in a soundtrack.

Simulation detail pages:
The first HiveArena contests are currently under development.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What if people try to cheat at HiveArena by hacking the results they send to the server?
Answer: The simulation space gets chopped up pretty small - especially where two or more bots come in contact, so if you were assigned a work unit with part of your bot in it, it would probably only be a piece. Also, each work unit gets calculated by two crunchers and if the results don't match, a third is calculated and eventually the work unit results that don't jive get thrown out. But there's always ways around these things, so we still need to address the prevention and detection of cheating.

Past Simulations

FineMotionController

This simulation was created for beta testing the NanoHive@Home software. The simulation simply tests the molecular stability of the fine-motion controller for molecular assembly (FMC), designed by Dr. K. Eric Drexler. The FMC is a mechanism that facilitates finely adjusted movements of a platform. These movements are effected by rotating one or more of eight rings, each connected to a strut connected to the platform. The result is the ability to finely control the platform position in the x, y, z, roll, pitch, and yaw degrees of motion.

Testing the stability of molecules and molecular assemblies, such as the FMC, is a common phase of design since it is sometimes hard to predict the conformational tendencies of complex structures at design-time.

Simulation detail pages:
FineMotionController_1 - NHAH beta testing