TY - JOUR

T1 - Swarm Robotics, or: the smartness of 'a bunch of cheap dumb things'

AU - Vehlken, Sebastian

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Not only recent Science Fiction – e.g., Star Trek Beyond (USA 2016) – celebrates the capacities of robot collectives. Also RoboCup, an annual robot soccer competition, or Harvard University’s Kilobot Project show stunning examples of the central idea behind Swarm Robotics: »[U]sing swarms is the same as getting a bunch of small cheap dumb things to do the same job as an expensive smart thing« (Beni/Wang 1989). This article examines some crucial aspects of the techno-history of a research field which intertwines engineering and biological knowledge and whose applications deal with compelling questions about synchronization and self-organization in changing environments – on the ground, in the air, and under water.

AB - Not only recent Science Fiction – e.g., Star Trek Beyond (USA 2016) – celebrates the capacities of robot collectives. Also RoboCup, an annual robot soccer competition, or Harvard University’s Kilobot Project show stunning examples of the central idea behind Swarm Robotics: »[U]sing swarms is the same as getting a bunch of small cheap dumb things to do the same job as an expensive smart thing« (Beni/Wang 1989). This article examines some crucial aspects of the techno-history of a research field which intertwines engineering and biological knowledge and whose applications deal with compelling questions about synchronization and self-organization in changing environments – on the ground, in the air, and under water.

KW - Media and communication studies

KW - swarm robotic

KW - swarm intelligence (SI)

KW - agent-based modeling (ABM)

KW - architectural design

KW - Digital media

U2 - 10.7480/spool.2017.1.1911

DO - 10.7480/spool.2017.1.1911

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 4

SP - 17

EP - 25

JO - Spool

JF - Spool

SN - 2215-0897

IS - 1

ER -