Division of Labour in Self-organised Groups

In social insect colonies, many tasks are performed by higherorder entities, such as groups and teams whose task solving capacities transcend those of the individual participants. In this paper, we investigate the emergence of such higher-order entities using a colony of up to 12 physical robots. We report on an experimental study in which the robots engage in a range of different activities, including exploration, path formation, recruitment, self-assembly and group transport. Once the robots start interacting with each other and with their environment, they selforganise into teams in which distinct roles are performed concurrently. The system displays a dynamical hierarchy of teamwork, the cooperating elements of which comprise higher-order entities. The study shows that teamwork requires neither individual recognition nor inter-individual differences, and as such might contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of such characteristics for the division of labour in social insects.