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Science 16 November 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5853, pp. 1155 - 1158
DOI: 10.1126/science.1144259
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Reports

Social Integration of Robots into Groups of Cockroaches to Control Self-Organized Choices

J. Halloy,1*{dagger} G. Sempo,1* G. Caprari,3 C. Rivault,2 M. Asadpour,3 F. Tâche,3 I. Saïd,2 V. Durier,2 S. Canonge,1 J. M. Amé,1 C. Detrain,1 N. Correll,4 A. Martinoli,4 F. Mondada,5 R. Siegwart,3 J. L. Deneubourg1

Collective behavior based on self-organization has been shown in group-living animals from insects to vertebrates. These findings have stimulated engineers to investigate approaches for the coordination of autonomous multirobot systems based on self-organization. In this experimental study, we show collective decision-making by mixed groups of cockroaches and socially integrated autonomous robots, leading to shared shelter selection. Individuals, natural or artificial, are perceived as equivalent, and the collective decision emerges from nonlinear feedbacks based on local interactions. Even when in the minority, robots can modulate the collective decision-making process and produce a global pattern not observed in their absence. These results demonstrate the possibility of using intelligent autonomous devices to study and control self-organized behavioral patterns in group-living animals.

1 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Service d'Ecologie Sociale CP231, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.
2 UMR 6652 Ethologie Evolution Ecologie, CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes, France.
3 Autonomous System Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, Tannenstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
4 Swarm-Intelligent Systems Group, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL IC ISC GR-MA, Station 14, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
5 Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL STI IPR LSRO, Station 9, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jhalloy{at}ulb.ac.be

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)