In a lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, physicists run experiments with robots that look as though they came from the dollar store. The robots can’t move through space. They can’t communicate. Mostly they flap their little arms, like beetles stuck on their backs.
But put a lot of these objects together and you get something from nothing: They hit each other, nudge each other and tangle with each other. And eventually, they start to work as a unit.
Researchers are learning how to control these systems so that they function in a manner similar to swarms of bees or colonies of ants: Each individual operates in response to the same basic set of instructions. But when the swarm comes together, its members can carry out complex behaviors without any centralized direction.
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