ROBOTS (Social)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2893 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, Human sciences |
Groups of artificial organisms able to develop a coordinated behavior.
Such groups are showing what is now called swarm intelligence, as can be observed in ants or bees… and human societies.
Various Artificial Intelligence laboratories in the world are presently experimenting with self-organizing groups of robots: at M.I.T. (R. BROOKS and P. MAES), at Brussels Free University (L. STEELS), at ONERA and Paris VI University (J. ERCEAU and J. FERBER).
This research in so-called “artificial life” is at least partly inspired in insect societies. It seems promised to a considerable technical future (for example in extra-terrestrial exploration). It is however probably even more important in relation to our knowledge of the general systemic nature of sociality.
As an example L. STEELS, quoted by S. LEVY (1992, p.302), constructed “a robot ecology” based on functional self-organization… drawing from the social insects and cellular automata studies of his neighbors at the University of Brussels, studying under PRIGOGINE, and postulationg robots running under BROOKS's subsumption architecture“.
The subject is also related to emergence through dissipative structuration processes affecting, in this case, groups of numerous interacting elements.(See for instance P.M. ALLEN, 1980 and 1982).