The New Frontier of Swarming Robots

Everyone has seem swarms of bees, ants, or birds moving about like a single creature. But robots can swarm, too. In fact, coordinated swarms of small robots may one day help people in search-and-rescue missions, planetary or underwater exploration, or even de-mining war zones. Inspired by nature, Carlo Pinciroli, assistant professor of computer science and robotics engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), leads a research team in the Novel Engineering for Swarm Technologies Laboratory that is trying to give swarms of fairly simple robots a sort of collective intelligence, so they can sense their environment, communicate, and work together efficiently and safely.