Watch a swarm of robots lay artificial pheromones like ants

The collective behaviors shown exhibited spatial organization, memory, and communication.
By  on 
Robots used in stigmergy study
Watch Next

Running, jumping, and flying: welcome to the future of robotics.


Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination, in which individuals can influence their peers by changing their environment. For example, some ant species lay pheromone trails to navigate between food sources and nests. Researchers used these robots to conduct a study to see if stigmergy-based behavior can be produced via automatic design. The results show collective behaviors designed automatically can be just as good, if not better than those produced manually.

Topics Robotics


More from Strictly Robots
Unitree’s $16,000 humanoid robot is ready for mass production
Unitree's G1 humanoid robot

This pink blob is the first step to realistic robotic skin
Artificial skin in the shape of a smiling face

Meet the autonomous sanding robot designed to help labor shortages
Gray Matter Robotics Scan and Sand robot

Sony’s careful robot is learning how to perform microsurgeries
A robot performs microsurgery on a cob of corn.

Meet the robots cleaning up Lake Tahoe
A split screen shows the three robots at work. Caption reads: "Robo cleaners"

Latest Videos

'M3GAN 2.0' trailer: Now there's two of them!
M3GAN in "M3GAN 2.0."


Tiny pacemaker developed by scientists can fit in a syringe
A collage shows the tiny pacemaker placed on a fingerprint next to a rice grain for scale; in the background, a more zoomed-in image shows the pacemaker next to a needle boar.

'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' teaser trailer sees Josh Hutcherson's work follow him home
An animatronic from Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

The 'Dimension 20' cast chooses their ultimate Intrepid Heroes squad
Dimension 20 Plays Choose Your Squad



Seth Meyers and Paul Rudd day drinking goes hilariously off the rails
Paul Rudd and Seth Meyers going day drinking.


The biggest stories of the day delivered to your inbox.
These newsletters may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. By clicking Subscribe, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up. See you at your inbox!