The lowly ant: able to lift many times their own weight and able to build complex structures, using signaling based on chemical signaling with pheromones. “RAnts” (Robot Ants) communicate through light fields known as photormones and build and deconstruct complex structures. Maybe Elon Musk will use RAnt swarms to build space colonies on Mars. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.
Researchers at Harvard have developed a fleet of robotic ants that mimic the self-organizing behavior of social insects to build and dismantle structures without blueprints or central leadership.
Dubbed “RAnts”, these robotic ants have been designed by researchers from the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
These are simple, decentralized robots that can spontaneously organize to build — and just as easily destroy — complex structures.
Instead of chemical pheromones, these robots use light fields (photormones) to communicate.
“Our new study shows how simple, local rules can lead to the emergence of complex task completion that is self-organized and thus robust and adaptive,” said Professor L. Mahadevan, the Lola England de Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Physics at SEAS and FAS.
“We also introduce the concept of exbodied intelligence, where collective cognition arises not solely from individual agents, but from their ongoing interaction with an evolving environment,” Mahadevan added.
PERCEPTION RESET 