Inspired by termites and their building activities, the TERMES project is working toward developing a swarm construction system in which robots cooperate to build 3D structures much larger than themselves. The current system consists of simple but autonomous mobile robots and specialized passive blocks; the robot is able to manipulate blocks to build tall structures, as well as maneuver over and around the structures it creates. A multi-robot control would allow many simultaneously active robots to cooperate in building structures.
via Termite inspired robots | Machines Like Us.
Little robots given simple rules, designed to result in the construction of complex structures. I wonder if a good name for this would be ‘planned emergence’.
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