Membrane Computing Schema: A New Approach to Computation Using String Insertions

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the notion of a membrane computing schema for string objects. We propose a computing schema for a membrane network (i.e., tissue-like membrane system) where each membrane performs unique type of operations at a time and sends the result to others connected through the channel. The distinguished features of the computing models obtained from the schema are:

• 1. only context-free insertion operations are used for string generation,

• 2. some membranes assume filtering functions for structured objects (molecules),

• 3. generating model and accepting model are obtained in the same schema, and both are computationally universal,

• 4. several known rewriting systems with universal computability can be reformulated by the membrane computing schema in a uniform manner.

The first feature provides the model with a simple uniform structure which facilitates a biological implementation of the model, while the second feature suggests further feasibility of the model in terms of DNA complementarity.

Through the third and fourth features, one may have a unified view of a variety of existing rewriting systems with Turing computability in the framework of membrane computing paradigm.