Is this at all related to "Robust-first computing"? I first heard about it from this video[0]? He calls it a "movable feast machine".
What interested me about cellular automation is that in my reading of Neumann, it is said he was working on using cellular automata to construct fully replicating machines. It is also said he probably would have gone on to develop said architecture in full had he not died. Is your research in anyway related?
I'm interested but woefully lacking in formal cs training.