Collective Energy Foraging of Robot Swarms and Robot Organisms

Cooperation and competition among stand-alone swarm agents increase collective fitness of the whole system. A principally new kind of collective systems is demonstrated by some bacteria and fungi, when they build symbiotic organisms. Symbiotic life forms emerge new functional and self-developmental capabilities, which allow better survival of swarm agents in different environments. In this paper we consider energy foraging scenario for two robotic species, swarm robots and symbiotic robot organism. It is indicated that aggregation of microrobots into a robot organism can provide better functional fitness for the whole group. A prototype of microrobots capable of autonomous aggregation and disaggregation are shown.