Enabling bidirectional real time interaction between biological and technical systems: Structural basics of a control oriented modeling of biology-technology-interfaces

Due to digitization, demographic change and a growing demand for sustainability, companies are facing great challenges. Latest research reveals the biological transformation of manufacturing as the next leap. Digital technologies enable the usage of sensitive biological materials for resource friendly production, gaining natural products and circular economy. Therefore, adaptive biology-technology interfaces are necessary in order to enable bidirectional real time information exchange between biological and technological systems, which is still a gap in research. We thus present conceptual basics of biology-technology-interface (BTI) engineering, discuss BTI examples for various industrial applications and introduce an interdisciplinary theoretical model for communication and process control across systems. We conclude with a summary and recommendations for future research.