In natural ecosystems, the herd mentality plays a major role -- from schools of fish, to beehives to ant colonies. This collective behavior allows the whole to exceed the sum of its parts and better respond to threats and challenges.
This behavior inspired researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, and for more than a year they've been working on creating "smart swarms" of microscopic robots. The researchers engineered social interactions among these tiny machines so that they can act as one coordinated group, performing tasks better than they would if they were moving as individuals or at random.
"All these groups, flocks of birds, schools of fish and others, each member of the group has this natural inclination to work in concert with its neighbor, and together they are smarter, stronger and more efficient than they would be on their own," said Yuebing Zheng, associate professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Texas Materials Institute. "We wanted to learn more about the mechanisms that make this happen and see if we can reproduce it."
Zheng and his team first showcased these innovations in a paper published in Advanced Materials last year. But they've taken things a step further in a new paper published recently in Science Advances.
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