  Digital Embedded Devices of next-generation safety-critical industrial
automation systems require high levels of survivability and resilience against
the hardware and software failure. One of the concepts for achieving this
requirement is the design of resilient and survivable digital embedded systems.
In the last two decades, development of self-healing digital systems based on
molecular and cellular biology have received attention for the design of robust
digital systems. However, many of these approaches have not been architected
from the outset with safety in mind, nor have they been targeted for the
applications of automation community where a significant need exists. This
paper presents a new self-healing hardware architecture, inspired from the way
nature responds, defends and heals: the stem cells in the immune system of
living organisms, the life cycle of the living cell, and the pathway from
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to protein. The proposed architecture is
integrating cellular-based biological concepts, traditional fault tolerance
techniques, and operational schematics for the international standard IEC
61131-3 to facilitate adoption in the automation industry and safety-critical
applications. To date, two industrial applications have been mapped on the
proposed architecture, which are capable of tolerating a significant number of
faults that can stem from harsh environmental changes and external disturbances
and we believe the nexus of its concepts can positively impact the next
generation of critical systems in the automation industry
