Cyber-physical systems are networks of elements that interact with the physical environment through various input and output mechanisms. Because of the nature of this interaction, communication, coordination, and computation must interact closely during the design and development process of these systems.

The aim is to synthesize desired behaviors in populations of bacterial and mammalian cells. To this goal, we define the basis of a next-generation CPS called biological CPS (bioCPS). The enabling technologies are synthetic biology and micron-scale mobile robotics. Synthetic gene circuits for decision making and local communication among the cells are automatically synthesized using a Bio-Design Automation workflow. A Robot Assistant for Communication, Sensing, and Control in Cellular Networks, which is designed and built as part of this project, is used to generate desired patterns in networks of engineered cells.

This Frontier CPS project combines control, formal methods, synthetic biology, robotics, and design automation. It develops novel formal methods and control theoretic approaches to pattern synthesis andBio-Design Automation. It defines new building blocks for bioCPS
in the form of robotic technology and synthetic circuits for control, communication, and sensing.

You can read more about this at: http://sites.bu.edu/biocps/