Fluidics

Systems using fluidics substrates

Systems using Fluidics

Liquid marble computer

boolean logic / reversible gates (AND, XOR, OR, NOT, Toffoli, Fredkin)

Liquid marbles are millimetre-scale droplets coated with hydrophobic powder that makes them roll freely without wetting surfaces. Computation is collision-based: two marbles directed at an intersectio...

deterministic reversible approximate

MONIAC (Phillips hydraulic computer)

Keynesian macroeconomic equilibrium (ODE system)

Built by Bill Phillips (1949). Water flows through tanks and pipes representing economic sectors — income, consumption, taxation, investment. Flow rates encode economic quantities. The system settles ...

deterministic irreversible approximate

Pneumatic logic (Coanda-effect fluidics)

boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT, NOR) via wall-attachment bistability

A jet of air entering a Y-shaped channel naturally attaches to one wall (the Coandă effect) and locks into that state by low-pressure recirculation. A small control jet on the opposite side provides e...

deterministic irreversible exact

Soap film

minimal surface (Plateau's problem)

A soap film spanning a closed wire boundary settles into the surface of minimum area — the solution to Plateau's problem. For two parallel rings it realizes a catenoid. Can approximate Steiner trees f...

deterministic irreversible exact

Water (fluidic) computer

binary addition / boolean logic (AND, XOR)

Water levels in vessels encode binary digits; a siphon and slow drain combine to implement AND and XOR in a single cup-and-tube unit. A filled cup is a 1, an empty cup a 0. When two cups feed one cont...

deterministic irreversible exact