TUNA

TUNA was a 2 year feasibility study into the work needed to develop networks of nanites that behave safely. Nanites are novel devices that operate on the nanoscopic level to cause macroscopic effects; nanotech assemblers are nanites that build artefacts.

We faced the following challenges.
(1) To investigate the languages needed for developing abstract models of nanites and the protocols needed for inter-nanite communication and for external control.
(2) To investigate methods for verifying and validating executable models of nanites.
(3) To investigate the requirements for an appropriate simulation framework for executable models of nanites and of networks of nanites.
(4) To investigate the nature of safety cases for the use of networks of nanites.

In carrying out these investigations, we used a case study from the field of nanomedicine: the process of haemostasis (the staunching of bleeding) caused by mechanical platelets.

TUNA investigators

• Susan Stepney, Ana Cavalcanti, Fiona Polack, Jim Woodcock : York
• Peter Welch : Kent
• Steve Schneider, Helen Treharne : Surrey

TUNA outputs

TUNA final report

• final report

TUNA publications

• A. F. Freitas, A. L. C. Cavalcanti. Automatic Translation from Circus to Java. FM’06. LNCS 4085:115–130. Springer, 2006.

• M. V. M. Oliveira, A. L. C. Cavalcanti, J. C. P. Woodcock. Formal development of industrial-scale systems. Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering. 1(2):126–147, 2005.

• Fiona Polack, Susan Stepney. Emergent properties do not refine. REFINE 2005 workshop, Guildford, UK, April 2005. ENTCS, 137(2):163–181, 2005.

• Fiona Polack, Susan Stepney, Heather Turner, Peter Welch, Fred Barnes. An architecture for modelling emergence in CA-like systems. ECAL'05, Kent, UK, September 2005. LNAI 3630:427-436. Springer, 2005.

• Steve Schneider, Ana Cavalcanti, Helen Treharne, Jim Woodcock. A Layered Behavioural Model of Platelets. ICECCS 2006. IEEE 2006.

• S. Stepney, S. L. Braunstein, J. A. Clark, A. Tyrrell, A. Adamatzky, R. E. Smith, T. Addis, C. Johnson, J. Timmis, P. Welch, R. Milner, D. Partridge. Journeys in non-classical computation I: A grand challenge for computing research. International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, 20(1): 5–19, April 2006

• S. Stepney, S. L. Braunstein, J. A. Clark, A. Tyrrell, A. Adamatzky, R. E. Smith, T. Addis, C. Johnson, J. Timmis, P. Welch, R. Milner, D. Partridge. Journeys in non-classical computation II: Initial journeys and waypoints. International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems, 20(1): 5–19, April 2006

• Susan Stepney, Fiona Polack, Heather Turner. Engineering Emergence. ICECCS 2006. IEEE 2006.

• Heather Turner, Susan Stepney. Rule Migration: Exploring a design framework for modelling emergence in CA-like systems. Unconventional Computing Workshop, ECAL'05, Kent, UK, September 2005.

• Heather Turner, Susan Stepney, Fiona Polack. A simulation environment for emergent properties (extended abstract). ECCS 2005: European Conference on Complex Systems, Paris, France, 14-18 November 2005.

• Heather Turner, Susan Stepney, Fiona Polack. Rule Migration: Exploring a design framework for emergence. International Journal of Unconventional Computing. 3(1):49-66 2007.

• P. H. Welch, F. R. M. Barnes, F. A. C. Polack. Communicating complex systems. ICECCS 2006. IEEE 2006
  • a collection of supporting material

other TUNA material

• useful references
• Peter Welch : Communicating Mobile Processes (PDF, 1.8MB) : (PDF 4-up, 659KB) : presentation to kickoff meeting, 12 November 2004
• Kent : simulations of nanite blood clotting.
• Peter Welch et al : a collection of occam-pi and FDR scripts implementing and analysing algorithms for performing ALT (external choice) operations over multiple BARRIERs (multiway synchronisation events).