Swarm robotics took offin the early 2000s, an early example being thes-bot(short for swarm-bot).
Swarm behaviour in birds or robots designed to mimic them?
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A future where floating robots powered by plastic-eating bacteria could tackle ocean waste.
For example, whales and dolphins can have distinctive foraging methods that are passed down through the generations.
Bottlenose dolphin playing with a sponge.
Some have learned to use them to help them catch fish.
For example,assistive robotsforhome carecould adapt to human behavioral differences in different communities and countries over time.
But the value of the swarm approach is to deploy robots that are simple, cheap and disposable.
Swarm robotics exploits the reality of emergence (more is different) to create social complexity from individual simplicity.
Such flexibility can be seen in the social insects, but sometimes even more dramatically in other animals.
Thesesocial spidersbenefit from having a mixture of personality types in their group, for example bold and shy.
Social spider (Stegodyphus) spin collective webs in Addo Elephant Park, South Africa.
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Myresearchidentified a flexibility in behavior where shy spiders wouldstep into a rolevacated by absent bold nestmates.
In new areas cane toads are seen to besomewhat social.
Cane toads can adapt to temperature changes.
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In addition to behavioral and physiological plasticity, some organisms show morphological (shape) plasticity.
For example, groups of robots could aggregate together for safety when the weather takes a challenging turn.
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