Oct 28, 2020 11:13 PM
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-n...180976108/
EXCERPTS: . . . “How do thousands or tens of thousands of individuals all know how to flash at the same time when they can only see a fraction of the insects around them?” Orit Peleg marvels. “There are a lot of interesting aspects of firefly communication, and we’re hoping to shed light on them.”
Now, in a study published in September in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Raphael Sarfati and Orit Peleg have shown how to recreate the fireflies’ flashes and flight trajectories three-dimensionally. Their findings provide clues into how simple insects with limited cognitive functionality can accomplish complicated, synchronous tasks. By demonstrating how fireflies begin to synchronize, their research might inspire communication and coordination methods in swarm robotics technology. It will also serve as a resource for firefly conservation efforts by providing a more accurate way to monitor their populations.
[...] “They have developed a very, very powerful tool for understanding the details of flash synchrony,” says Sara Lewis, an evolutionary and behavioral ecologist ... who studies fireflies and was not part of the study.
[...] Anders Christensen is a professor of bio-inspired robotics ... who was not part of the study. He points out that having a clearer picture of synchrony, especially its emergent properties, through tools like Sarfati and Peleg’s will lead to a better understanding of communication and robustness, two of the self-organization principles guiding swarm robotics.
Christensen strives to design robots to perform tasks individually in the same way that a firefly has the ability to flash on its own, independently of the swarm. Yet, like fireflies, robots operating in a swarm must be able to communicate with and react to each other. The swarm should also be robust, meaning that it can continue to function even if some members break down. Christensen has accomplished communication and robustness in past robotics experiments but believes there’s more work to be done. “If we learn the connection between the microscopic rules that govern the individual firefly and the resulting global behavior of a swarm of fireflies, we can use that insight to design behaviors for robot swarms that require some form of synchronization to carry out a task,” Christensen says.
Another scientist not a part of the study, Tyler MacCready, [...] sees how the new research and the clues to synchronization it unlocks could pertain to his work—eventually. His robots are already capable of autonomous coordination between vehicles in complex, ever-changing environments like the ocean; however, they are still reliant on a human operator to provide group-level instructions. With the technology that may be possible thanks to this research, he hopes to one day be able to send a swarm of robots out to perform complex data collection tasks while just relying on each other, without communication from a human controller.
But while the swarm roboticists dream up pie-in-the sky applications, Lewis is eager to ensure the fireflies will be around long enough to serve as a muse... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: . . . “How do thousands or tens of thousands of individuals all know how to flash at the same time when they can only see a fraction of the insects around them?” Orit Peleg marvels. “There are a lot of interesting aspects of firefly communication, and we’re hoping to shed light on them.”
Now, in a study published in September in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Raphael Sarfati and Orit Peleg have shown how to recreate the fireflies’ flashes and flight trajectories three-dimensionally. Their findings provide clues into how simple insects with limited cognitive functionality can accomplish complicated, synchronous tasks. By demonstrating how fireflies begin to synchronize, their research might inspire communication and coordination methods in swarm robotics technology. It will also serve as a resource for firefly conservation efforts by providing a more accurate way to monitor their populations.
[...] “They have developed a very, very powerful tool for understanding the details of flash synchrony,” says Sara Lewis, an evolutionary and behavioral ecologist ... who studies fireflies and was not part of the study.
[...] Anders Christensen is a professor of bio-inspired robotics ... who was not part of the study. He points out that having a clearer picture of synchrony, especially its emergent properties, through tools like Sarfati and Peleg’s will lead to a better understanding of communication and robustness, two of the self-organization principles guiding swarm robotics.
Christensen strives to design robots to perform tasks individually in the same way that a firefly has the ability to flash on its own, independently of the swarm. Yet, like fireflies, robots operating in a swarm must be able to communicate with and react to each other. The swarm should also be robust, meaning that it can continue to function even if some members break down. Christensen has accomplished communication and robustness in past robotics experiments but believes there’s more work to be done. “If we learn the connection between the microscopic rules that govern the individual firefly and the resulting global behavior of a swarm of fireflies, we can use that insight to design behaviors for robot swarms that require some form of synchronization to carry out a task,” Christensen says.
Another scientist not a part of the study, Tyler MacCready, [...] sees how the new research and the clues to synchronization it unlocks could pertain to his work—eventually. His robots are already capable of autonomous coordination between vehicles in complex, ever-changing environments like the ocean; however, they are still reliant on a human operator to provide group-level instructions. With the technology that may be possible thanks to this research, he hopes to one day be able to send a swarm of robots out to perform complex data collection tasks while just relying on each other, without communication from a human controller.
But while the swarm roboticists dream up pie-in-the sky applications, Lewis is eager to ensure the fireflies will be around long enough to serve as a muse... (MORE - details)