Coherent movement of error-prone individuals through mechanical coupling.

We investigate how reliable movement can emerge in aggregates of highly error-prone individuals. The individuals-robotic modules-move stochastically using vibration motors. By coupling them via elastic links, soft-bodied aggregates can be created.

Sparse Robot Swarms: Moving Swarms to Real-World Applications.

Robot swarms are groups of robots that each act autonomously based on only local perception and coordination with neighboring robots. While current swarm implementations can be large in size (e.g.

A Self-Organising Model of Thermoregulatory Huddling.

Endotherms such as rats and mice huddle together to keep warm. The huddle is considered to be an example of a self-organising system, because complex properties of the collective group behaviour are thought to emerge spontaneously through simple interactions between individuals. Groups of rodent pups display two such emergent properties.

Simple learning rules to cope with changing environments.

We consider an agent that must choose repeatedly among several actions. Each action has a certain probability of giving the agent an energy reward, and costs may be associated with switching between actions. The agent does not know which action has the highest reward probability, and the probabilities change randomly over time.