Editorial:
Special Issue on Design of Swarm Intelligence Through Interdisciplinary Approach
Takeshi Kano* and Yuichiro Sueoka**
*Associate Professor, Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University
2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8577, Japan
**Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Osaka University
2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
In biological and social systems, a “swarm” refers to a group of individual units that behave as a single intelligent entity. “Swarm behavior,” the collective result of the local interactions among the group members, exhibits what is called “swarm intelligence.” By identifying the design principles of such swarm intelligence, we may be able to create swarm robots that are highly adaptable, fault tolerant, and dimensionally flexible.
An interdisciplinary approach, including disciplines ranging from technology to biology to the mathematical sciences, for example, is used to elucidate the design principles of swarm intelligence. We believe that such knowledge will lead to transformations in the field of swarm robotics.
This special issue highlights 19 exciting papers, including 13 research papers, five review papers, and one letter. Some papers focus on understanding the mechanism of real swarm phenomena, while the other papers focus on designing intelligent swarm systems. The keywords of the papers are as follows.
• Swarm intelligence
• Interdisciplinary approach
• Decentralized control
• Swarm robot
• Collective behavior
We would like to express our gratitude to all authors and reviewers, and we hope that this special issue contributes to future research and development in swarm intelligence.
This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.