Abstract

The inherent need for enhanced autonomy in space systems with dramatically reduced size, weight, and power is directly benefitting from the rapid advances in microelectronics driven primarily by commercial forces in this information age. However, miniaturization of silicon devices approaching physical limits imposed by semiconductor properties suggests that the end of the Moore’s law is in sight. On one hand, potential breakthroughs in molecular, DNA, and quantum computing promise phenomenal computing speed and performance, along with intriguing engineering challenges to make those a reality. On the other hand, high performance computing based on bio-inspired computing architectures is rapidly emerging as a viable, powerful paradigm for a variety of complex applications, primarily in sensory information processing. This has attracted a new generation of engineers and multi-disciplinary researchers to the study of bio-organisms. Animals and insects have their highly evolved intelligent sensory systems directly coupled to their brains: analog, highly parallel computing architectures, wellconnected to their dexterous limbs and wings endowed with excellent motor control. The principle of survival-of-the-fittest has made it possible for animals and insects to evolve with phenomenal capabilities to explore and effortlessly interact with their unstructured environment. The emerging research trends in computing architectures based on the art of biomimicry are quite promising. For example, artificial neural networks with deep learning capabilities are attempting to mimic the circuitry found in animal cerebellum to provide uncanny pattern recognition, real-time control, and autonomous decision-making; solid state 3-d memories are promising unprecedented storage density and associative information recall; and evolutionary “survival-of-the- fittest” algorithms are allowing optimization of circuits and architectures, capable of reconfiguring in real-time to withstand harsh ambient conditions.

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