TY - JOUR

T1 - Swarm Robotics, or: The Smartness of 'a bunch of cheap dumb things'

AU - Vehlken, Sebastian

PY - 2017/12/24

Y1 - 2017/12/24

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 - Construction engineering and architecture

KW - Digital media

KW - History

KW - Cultural studies

KW - Media and communication studies

U2 - 10.7480/spool.2017.1.1911

DO - 10.7480/spool.2017.1.1911

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 4

JO - Spool

JF - Spool

SN - 2215-0897

IS - 1

ER -