Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

Cockroaches are prefect for testing swarm behavior, they are pack members and behave as a swarm. They group together especially when hiding. They find a cool, dark place and pile into it as a group.

Four cockroaches built by Jose Halloy were introduced into a cockroach group. At first the roaches ignored the robots. They were then given sex hormone odors and accepted into the roaches group. The roaches were given two dark hiding places, one darker than the other. At first they and the robot preferred the dark hiding place. The robot was reprogrammed to prefer the lighter of the two dark hideouts and 60% of the other roaches followed suit.

Simpler methods such as hunting decoys have had success influencing animal behavior. But this method doesn’t have a way for the decoy to further interact with the animal. Robots gives us that opportunity. The things we learn from such studies will also give us insight in to ways to better control robot swarms.

See also:
Swarm intelligence reaches a new level

More information:
Led by Robots, Roaches Abandon Insticts
Robot ‘pied piper leads roaches
Leurre - Artificial life control in mixed societies
Slashdot ‘Robots Assimilate into Cockroach Society

Papers
Building mixed societies of animals and robots ( has pictures and details of the robot - cockroach experiment - excellent beginner’s paper )
Swis Track: A tracking tool for multi-unit robotic and biological systems ( more details on the cockroach experiment, also easily readable)