MagCeptor: Encoding Broadcast-Addressable Logic into Magnetic Receptors
Solves the addressability bottleneck in magnetic systems for multicellular coordination, enabling complex tasks without tethers or electronics.
MagCeptors encode addressability into magnetic topology, decoupling force from source distance and achieving a density of 385 mN/mm³ (>50-fold increase over prior art), enabling untethered distributed coordination.
Multicellular coordination relies on broadcast-addressable receptors, yet engineered magnetic systems face an addressability bottleneck because global fields intrinsically conflate power and control. Here, we introduce MagCeptors to resolve this by encoding selectivity directly into magnetic topology. Establishing an energetic isomorphism with biological receptors, these arrays utilize local couplings to shape potential landscapes where global field vectors act as spatial keys, triggering deterministic snap-through instabilities. This architecture decouples force from source distance, achieving a density of 385 mN/mm3 (>50-fold increase over prior art). We validate this primitive through signal demultiplexing, embodied sequential logic, and untethered distributed networking. This framework enables distributed systems to orchestrate complex tasks without tethers or electronics, relying solely on the intrinsic logic of matter.