Can this property of self repair be expanded to non-biological systems?
Early telecommunications and computer systems employed error detection and error correction data coding techniques, both in hardware and software to insure that data was not corrupted. These techniques are employed extensively in today's electronic systems. If you are not familiar with these techniques you can read up on it here.
There have also been techniques developed to repair electronic circuits through redundancy. A simple example would be to have three independent logic circuits and then compare the results, such that if two of the redundant logic circuits give one result and one is different, then choose the result with more votes.
But, what about mechanical components? George Washington University has filed for a patent for for Self Repairing and Self Sustaining Autonomous Machines.
"Machines are subject to wear due to friction between moving parts. The expensive heavy equipment, such as wind turbines and aircraft propellers, are expensive to shut down or repair. Researchers have patented a real-time sensor and nanotechnology-based system that detects the component surface damage in moving parts, such as gears, and repairs and sustains the moving parts of the machines automatically."
"The technology enables the machines that are long-lasting and self-sustaining to become self-repairing systems. The invention deploys a monitoring system of thin film automatic sensors to monitor physical metallurgical conditions of machine’s moving parts on their surfaces. The sensors transmit monitoring data using radio signals to a control site. The system also comprises a mathematical model that identifies damage through anomaly pattern recognitions and generates distress signals that trigger repairing process. The ultimate aim of the system is to reduce premature failures of machines such as expensive wind turbines and aircraft propellers, by eliminating labor cost and maintenance downtime significantly. This invention may have a profound effect on how machines are designed, built and maintained."
And a team of British scientists at the University of Bristol has been quietly developing a technology over the past three years that has produced aircraft wings that can fix themselves after being damaged, suggesting that self-healing technology will soon become commonplace. Their research, that was presented at a Royal Society meeting in London, was billed as an important step in an emerging field which could soon produce self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens. Speaking exclusively to The Independent its leader, Professor Duncan Wass, said he expected self-healing products to reach consumers in the “very near future”.
