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. | Mashable

These snail-inspired robotic swarms look both cute and creepy at the same time. Engineers from CUHK Shenzhen and AIRS have developed a 3D freeform self-configurable snail robot swarm for field applications, drawing inspiration from the distinct anatomical structure of land snails. The robots can connect to one another's shells using a connection mechanism, replicating the attachment seen in real snails in nature. This expandable capacity enables the formation of larger, more adaptable robotic sy