Geometric problems in molecular biology and robotics.

Abstract

Some of the geometric problems of interest to molecular biologists have macroscopic analogues in the field of robotics. Two examples of such analogies are those between protein docking and model-based perception, and between ring closure and inverse kinematics. Molecular dynamics simulation, too, has much in common with the study of robot dynamics. In this paper we give a brief survey of recent work on these and related problems.