Mycelium-Based ELM Digital Twin Implemented in FPGA

Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) based on fungal mycelium offer a promising solution to the challenges posed by environmental disruption, resource scarcity, and rising material demands, while also exhibiting interesting computational capabilities. These materials are cost-effective, widely available, and environmentally beneficial due to their biodegradable nature. Using a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to create a digital twin could make it much easier to predict growth patterns, find the best conditions for development, and look into possible uses for mycelial ELMs. Digital twins with advanced hardware integration are particularly effective, providing deep insights into the physical and mathematical aspects of these materials. This paper describes the use of Cellular Automata (CAs) and reaction-diffusion systems to model these processes due to their ability to handle the behavior of complex systems with scalability and parallelism. This approach has enabled the high-fidelity simulation of ELMs behaviors and the successful prototype implementation on a FPGA, making it a significant step towards practical applications of mycelial ELMs.