14 DAY TRIAL // Termites are famous around the world for their ability to construct massive structures more than 1,000 times their own size, without receiving any orders or communicating with each other. These amazing abilities have now been replicated by a team of experts at the Harvard University.
Investigators led by computer scientist Justin Werfel have developed a series of robots that can use cues from their environments to construct structures similar to castles or pyramids based on a set of very simple rules, and all while working independently from each other.
Basically, the team was able to combine certain traffic rules with robot behavior patterns to obtain a swarm of machines capable of working together without actually collaborating. Details of the study appear in the February 13 issue of the top scientific journal Science, Nature News reports.
This type of robot swarm could be used to explore alien worlds, Wefel says. Closer to home, they could work to build emergency levees during flash floods. Even if numerous swarm members are swept away by the waves, the swarm as a whole would keep working without interruption until the job is done.