Method and system for self-replicating manufacturing stations

Details Method and system for self-replicating manufacturing stations Method and system for self-replicating manufacturing stations

2000-05-11

2003-01-21

Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)

Data processing: generic control systems or specific application

Specific application, apparatus or process

Product assembly or manufacturing

C700S095000, C700S245000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06510359

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention is related in general to manufacturing, and in particular to a non-biological self replicating manufacturing system.
BACKGROUND
A recognized desire exists in the prior art for non-biological self replicating manufacturing systems. Manufacturing systems are commonly implemented to produce (or manufacture) many types of non-biological items, including but not limited to commercial products (e.g., automobiles, clothing, appliances, computer components, etcetera), industrial products (e.g., parts used in industrial factories), and even information (e.g., data generated by a computer system). Various attempts and advances have been made in such non-biological manufacturing systems of the prior art to manufacture an end product in a timely and cost efficient manner. A relatively simple example of a prior art manufacturing advancement was the development of the assembly line in the early 1900's by Henry Ford to enable mass production of automobiles in a timely and cost efficient manner. Of course, numerous additional advances have been made in the field of manufacturing in attempts to further improve the timeliness and cost efficiency of various manufacturing systems.
While many such advancements have been made toward improving manufacturing systems' production of an end product, a desire has also been recognized for improving the development of the manufacturing systems themselves. For example, a desire has been recognized for improving the timeliness and cost efficiency associated with developing (or “manufacturing”) a manufacturing system. For instance, a factory may be implemented with one or more assembly lines included therein to enable the factory to mass produce automobiles. However, a desire exists for manufacturing the factory itself (having the assembly lines therein) in a timely and cost efficient manner. Prior art theorists have long recognized the desirability of a non-biological self replicating manufacturing system. Such a self replicating system would first enable a manufacturing system to effectively replicate, resulting in additional like manufacturing systems. Thereafter, the manufacturing systems may all work to manufacture end products. As a result, the timeliness and cost efficiency of producing a manufacturing system, as well as end products, may be enhanced.
As a broad example of such a self replicating theory, further consider the above example of a factory that includes assembly lines for mass producing automobiles. If such a factory were a self replicating manufacturing system, then the factory itself could produce another like factory (i.e., replicate), and the two factories could then work in parallel to manufacture end products (e.g., automobiles). Of course this theory need not only be applied at the highest level of a manufacturing system (e.g., the factory itself), but could be applied to any level within a manufacturing system (e.g., to any manufacturing system included within the factory). For example, an assembly line included within the factory, if implemented as a self replicating assembly line, could replicate to efficiently generate a desired number of such assembly lines to be utilized within the factory.
Self replication is a desirable concept not only for large scale manufacturing systems, such as factories, but also for much smaller scale manufacturing systems. A particular need has been recognized for a non-biological self replicating manufacturing system in the field of nanotechnology. That is, a particular need has been recognized for a non-biological self replicating manufacturing system for micro-assembly and nano-assembly of end products. For example, due to the particular complexity and time requirements typically associated with nanotechnology manufacturing, a non-biological self replicating manufacturing system in this field is especially desirable. In the past few decades, theories have been proposed for providing self replicating manufacturing systems on various size scales, from very large manufacturing systems (e.g., see the Lunar Factory proposed by NASA and ASEE described below) to manufacturing systems that manufacture end products at the molecular level (e.g., see Drexler's Assembler described below).
One example of a proposed self replicating manufacturing system in space exploration is the Self-Replicating Lunar Factory proposed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 1980 (see
NASA Conference Publication
2255
: Advanced Automation for Space Missions
, edited by Robert A. Freitas, Jr. and William P. Gilbreath, National Technical Information Service, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA; N83-15348). This proposal describes a vastly complex self replicating system intended to self replicate within a relatively uncontrolled environment (i.e., the surface of the Earth's moon). More specifically, the resulting proposal included a 150-page chapter on “Replicating Systems Concepts: Self-Replicating Lunar Factory and Demonstration” which proposed a 20-year program to develop a self-replicating general purpose lunar manufacturing facility (a Self Replicating System, or SRS) that would be placed on the lunar surface. The initial “seed” for the facility, to be landed on the lunar surface from Earth to start the process, was 100 tons (approximately four Apollo missions). Once this 100-ton seed was in place, all further raw materials would be mined from the lunar surface and processed into the parts required to extend the SRS. A significant advantage of this approach for space exploration would be to reduce or eliminate the need to transport mass from the Earth—which is relatively expensive.
The report remarks that “[t]he difficulty of surmounting the Earth's gravitational potential makes it more efficient to consider sending information in preference to matter into space whenever possible. Once a small number of self-replicating facilities has been established in space, each able to feed upon nonterrestrial materials, further exports of mass from Earth will dwindle and eventually cease. The replicative feature is unique in its ability to grow, in situ, a vastly larger production facility than could reasonably be transported from Earth. Thus the time required to organize extraordinarily large amounts of mass in space and to set up and perform various ambitious future missions can be greatly shortened by using a self-replicating factory that expands to the desired manufacturing capacity.” Accordingly, a large-scale, vastly complex, non-biological self replicating manufacturing system has been proposed in the prior art for operation within the relatively uncontrolled environment of the Earth's moon. While such a system has been proposed, it has yet to be implemented in a manner that supports the proposition that such a vastly complex system is workable/successful as a self replicating manufacturing system in such an uncontrolled environment. Without such an implementation, such a proposal appears speculative due to the enormous complexity involved, in addition to the relatively unpredictable nature of the uncontrolled environment in which the manufacturing system is proposed to be implemented.
Another example of a proposed non-biological self replicating manufacturing system is provided in the theoretical work of von Neumann (see
Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata
, by John von Neumann, edited and completed by Arthur W. Burks, University of Illinois Press, 1966). The von Neumann architecture for a self replicating system is perhaps the ancestral and archetypical proposal for non-biological self replicating manufacturing systems (see e.g.
How a SIMD machine can implement a complex cellular automaton?
[sic]
A case study: von Neumann 's
29-
state cellular automaton
, by Jacqueline Signorini, Proceedings Supercomputing '89, ACM Press, 1989). Von Neumann proposed two types of systems: (1) a cellular automata system and (2) a “kinematic machine.”
Von

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