/Recent content in Software, Rewilded. on adaptive-emergentHugoenThu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:53 +1000/posts/2026/07/2026-07-30-quorum-1/Sun, 19 Jul 2026 11:05:04 +0800/posts/2026/07/2026-07-30-quorum-1/This is a part one of a four part series of emergent microbial communication. “Quorum sensing”, “quorum quenching”. Cool words, what are we talking about here?/posts/2026/06/2026-06-28-demos-part2/Sun, 28 Jun 2026 15:26:00 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-28-demos-part2/(See the original demos announcement at the link). We have added more algorithms to the website to try out and tweak./posts/2026/06/2026-06-08-agentic-lessons-from-nature/Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:54:34 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-08-agentic-lessons-from-nature/A great article to capture the principles we use at adaptive-emergent. Lessons forgotten in the cloud. https://www.tredence.com/blog/agentic-swarms-lessons-from-nature-for-machine-intelligence/posts/2026/05/2026-05-24-milestone-demos/Sun, 24 May 2026 15:26:00 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-24-milestone-demos/UPDATE: See more demos by following this link! We are happy to announce that the Gallery part of our website is now available for viewing!/posts/2025/09/battlefield-drones-1/Tue, 02 Sep 2025 23:30:34 +0800/posts/2025/09/battlefield-drones-1/A case in point: “…decided amongst themselves when to strike.” No “agentic frameworks”… just swarms. https://slashdot.org/story/446276/posts/2025/08/bioacoustics-1/Thu, 07 Aug 2025 23:30:34 +0800/posts/2025/08/bioacoustics-1/Google DeepMind’s Perch model helps conservationists analyze audio faster to protect endangered species, from Hawaiian honeycreepers to coral reefs. https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/how-ai-is-helping-advance-the-science-of-bioacoustics-to-save-endangered-species//posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-1/Wed, 09 Jul 2025 11:05:04 +0800/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-1/In 2025 the term “agent” has been dusted off and it is seeing another time in the sun. My first experience was with printer drivers… remember printers?/posts/2025/01/tide-1/Wed, 22 Jan 2025 09:13:22 +0800/posts/2025/01/tide-1/This is part 3 of the Tide Foundation’s five part series on their distributed approach to securing computers. https://tide.org/blog/swarm-intelligence-future-security/posts/2024/12/ants-best-humans-1/Mon, 30 Dec 2024 10:40:51 +0800/posts/2024/12/ants-best-humans-1/https://www.science.org/content/article/ants-best-humans-test-collective-intelligence/posts/2026/07/2026-07-30-quorum-2/Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:07:10 +0900/posts/2026/07/2026-07-30-quorum-2/To Which Quorum Should a Bacterium Listen? In the first article on microbial communication, we saw how bacteria release chemical signals that accumulate as a population grows./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-2/Sat, 12 Jul 2025 11:07:10 +0900/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-2/In part one, we asked what it means to call something an agent. We contrasted modern AI agents — designed to achieve explicit goals — with biological agents like bees or ants, which follow simple rules without necessarily “understanding” their purpose./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-3/Tue, 15 Jul 2025 11:07:10 +1000/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-3/“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu In part one and part two, we’ve explored how biological agents — ants, birds, bees — operate without central control, memory, or explicit goals./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-4/Sun, 20 Jul 2025 11:07:10 +0600/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-4/In previous articles we defined terms like agent and swarms, and looked at a major difference between natural and artificial adaptation, time./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-5/Sun, 17 Aug 2025 11:07:10 +1100/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-5/This is the fifth of seven articles in the series comparing Nature with AI and how they approach agents. Part four is accessed here, the full series from here./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-6/Sat, 30 Aug 2025 11:09:35 +1100/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-6/In particular areas of human endeavour, precision in language matters, such as contract law. Sometimes the language is numbers, like in accounting or science./posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-7/Sat, 30 Aug 2025 11:11:10 +1100/posts/2025/07/ni-vs-ai-7/Over this 7-part series, we’ve explored how natural systems — ants, bees, birds, and brains — solve problems through emergence, not instruction./posts/2024/08/a-e-history-1/Sun, 25 Aug 2024 02:34:05 +0800/posts/2024/08/a-e-history-1/This series of blog posts starts off a new direction for an organisation that went from a going concern… to a passion project, and the realisation that the name outlived its purpose./posts/2024/08/a-e-history-2/Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:34:14 +0800/posts/2024/08/a-e-history-2/adappt’s heritage is in its name. Read all parts to this series: In part one, we reviewed what was adappt.io, from 2015 to 2024./posts/2024/08/a-e-history-3/Wed, 28 Aug 2024 02:34:05 +0800/posts/2024/08/a-e-history-3/adaptive-emergent now has a more focussed direction. Part one of this series looked at the history from 2015 to 2021; Part two explained why adappt./posts/2026/08/ae-20260820-002/Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:53 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260820-002/Researchers have identified 13 branched-chain fatty acids in cat urine whose relative proportions differ among individuals yet remain comparatively stable within the same cat./posts/2026/08/ae-20260820-001/Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:52 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260820-001/A theoretical study of collective escape proposes that animals can improve both speed and accuracy by treating an undisturbed neighbour as negative evidence about a possible threat./posts/2026/08/ae-20260818-001/Tue, 18 Aug 2026 07:31:05 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260818-001/To operate autonomously, minimal robot swarms must make timely and reliable collective decisions despite noisy individual sensing and severe constraints on communication, computation, and memory./posts/2026/08/ae-20260817-001/Mon, 17 Aug 2026 22:03:26 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260817-001/Researchers studying Bengalese finches found that learned birdsong develops statistical structure resembling properties of human language. Young birds segment continuous song into recurring chunks by tracking how predictably syllables follow one another, while frequently used chunks become disproportionately common and short./posts/2026/08/2026-08-17-bees-and-flowers-harness-static-electricity-to-create-pollen/Mon, 17 Aug 2026 21:49:39 +1000/posts/2026/08/2026-08-17-bees-and-flowers-harness-static-electricity-to-create-pollen/Bees and flowering plants share one of nature’s most elegant and essential symbiotic relationships. This relationship goes beyond the visible interactions of bees landing on flowers and emerging covered in pollen./posts/2026/08/ae-20260816-004/Sun, 16 Aug 2026 08:58:06 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260816-004/Cells don’t always behave as individuals. In sheets of epithelial cells — the tightly connected cells that line and cover much of the body — researchers have observed waves of contraction and expansion spreading through the group, a little like the stop-start compression that travels backwards through a traffic jam./posts/2026/08/ae-20260812-001/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260812-001/A mathematical model of the dawn chorus shows how synchronized singing can emerge without central coordination. Each simulated bird has its own threshold for beginning to sing, determined by increasing ambient light and the amount of nearby birdsong it hears./posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-003/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-003/A theoretical model of flying insect swarms proposes acoustic interaction as a local communication mechanism, with each insect attracted toward a weighted mean field generated by nearby swarm members./posts/2026/08/ae-20260812-002/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260812-002/A model grounded in observations of ant colonies suggests that synchronized bursts of activity can begin with a single active worker./posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-001/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-001/Researchers used a closed-loop biohybrid system in which robotic agents interacted dynamically with schooling fish, allowing them to probe how individuals respond to neighbours rather than merely observe naturally occurring schools./posts/2026/08/ae-20260811-002/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260811-002/An RFID study of stingless bees found that seemingly minor environmental cues strongly affected how reliably returning foragers identified their own colonies./posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-002/Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:59 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260810-002/This study uses a conditioned escape response to follow how information propagates through schooling fish after selected individuals respond to a threat cue./posts/2026/08/2026-08-08-part-4-the-dangling-conversation/Sat, 08 Aug 2026 11:21:12 +1000/posts/2026/08/2026-08-08-part-4-the-dangling-conversation/Part 4: The dangling conversation In the previous article, we saw bacterial populations defend themselves collectively. Cyanobacteria formed protective flocs, while dying E./posts/2026/08/ae-20260808-001/Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:51:06 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260808-001/Longhorn crazy ants cooperatively transporting awkward loads through mazes reveal a striking scaling effect: larger teams solve geometrically difficult problems much more effectively than smaller ones, even when the physical burden per ant is held constant./posts/2026/08/ae-20260808-004/Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:51:06 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260808-004/Male sperm whales produce exceptionally powerful slow clicks that may remain detectable across roughly 70 kilometres of deep ocean while maintaining remarkably precise intervals of five to ten seconds./posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-001/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:35:14 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-001/Groups of American cockroaches can continue occupying a shelter after environmental cues change, even though isolated individuals quickly move elsewhere./posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-004/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:35:14 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-004/Observations from Mexico’s Gulf of California document orcas cooperating to dismantle large sharp-tail sunfish. One whale stabilised the prey while another accelerated into it, requiring precise positioning, timing and apparent coordination between participants./posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-003/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:35:14 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-003/A game theory model examines how collective intelligence can arise when each individual observes only one part of a complex environment./posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-002/Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:35:14 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260806-002/A comparative study across arthropods finds that sperm cooperation is far more widespread and evolutionarily recurrent than previously assumed. In many insects, spiders, crustaceans and related animals, sperm bind into coordinated groups or use sperm-associated material to form organised structures./posts/2026/08/ae-20260802-003/Sun, 02 Aug 2026 08:44:52 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260802-003/Ultra-weak ‘biophotons’ might be used to diagnose disease, or could even represent a new signalling mechanism in cells. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02311-z/posts/2026/08/2026-08-02-quorum-3/Sun, 02 Aug 2026 07:58:18 +1000/posts/2026/08/2026-08-02-quorum-3/In the previous article, we saw that bacteria may encounter several overlapping signals. Different messages can indicate neighbours, competitors, changing conditions or competing courses of action./posts/2026/08/ae-20260801-001/Sat, 01 Aug 2026 16:08:00 +1000/posts/2026/08/ae-20260801-001/Long before a distant herd comes into view, an elephant likely already knows it is coming, thanks to silent messages sent through the ground./posts/2026/07/ae-20260731-002/Fri, 31 Jul 2026 21:09:32 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260731-002/Female Megalopta sweat bees must choose whether to remain as helpers in their mother’s nest or leave to reproduce independently./posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-001/Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:27:19 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-001/Researchers selectively silenced neural circuits associated with the doublesex gene in older honeybee workers and caused them to resume queen-care duties normally performed by younger bees./posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-002/Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:27:19 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-002/Kagoshima University researchers identified methyl benzoate as an airborne plant-defence signal whose release rises around dusk. Plants receiving the compound activate defence-related genes through NPR1, a central regulator of plant immunity, using a response pattern distinct from the better-known signal methyl salicylate./posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-004/Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:27:19 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260730-004/A minimal wake-vortex model explains how a bird following behind and to the side of another can reduce the mechanical power needed for flight by about 11 percent./posts/2026/07/ae-20260731-001/Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:26:12 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260731-001/A new agent-based model suggests that Andean condors can reduce the energetic cost of long-distance flight by using the movements of other birds as continuously updated social information./posts/2026/07/ae-20260727-001/Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:12:03 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260727-001/Greater Japanese horseshoe bats gradually converge on a shared echolocation frequency after unfamiliar individuals join a colony. Instead of separating their signals into individual channels, lower-frequency bats shift upward until colony members preserve a common clutter-free band in which echoes from fluttering prey remain detectable./posts/2026/07/ae-20260727-002/Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:12:03 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260727-002/Researchers found that aphids transfer several of their own microRNAs, together with the regulatory protein Argonaute 1, into Buchnera bacteria living inside specialised host cells./posts/2026/07/ae-20260723-001/Thu, 23 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260723-001/Wood ants maintaining their nests can move sticks cooperatively even when there is no shared destination or leader directing the task./posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-001/Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-001/A new preprint examines how pairs of homing pigeons establish leader and follower roles when navigating with unfamiliar partners. The work matters because it reveals how distributed groups can rapidly settle coordination roles without a central authority or an established social history./posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-003/Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-003/A honeybee-inspired study compares centrally directed organisations with decentralized groups whose members allocate work through local communication and differing behavioural thresholds./posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-002/Wed, 22 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260722-002/Rosy barbs and tiger barbs have markedly different individual swimming patterns, yet form cohesive mixed-species schools by matching speed through local interactions./posts/2026/07/ae-20260721-001/Tue, 21 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260721-001/Research published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology used drone footage and trajectory modelling to infer how Tibetan antelopes coordinate while moving./posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-001/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-001/Honeybee groups carry distinct chemical signatures used to distinguish nestmates from outsiders, but those signatures change when groups are brought together./posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-002/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-002/Research into the ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria bicolor found that cadmium exposure can trigger stress signals in parts of the fungal network that never directly encounter the metal./posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-003/Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260720-003/A mathematical study of leaderless collectives found that efficient groups need only a small number of persistent risk-takers to explore during poor conditions, while the majority wait for favourable signals./posts/2026/07/2026-07-18-butterflies/Sat, 18 Jul 2026 10:22:56 +1000/posts/2026/07/2026-07-18-butterflies/A Japanese boy noticed his butterflies seemed to recognise him. He spent two years design an experiment and proved that metamorphosis does not erase memories formed during the caterpillar stage./posts/2026/07/ae-20260713-001/Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260713-001/A new preprint examines how goldfish use two forms of social information—the number of fish in a shoal and how actively they are moving—when deciding which group to join./posts/2026/07/2026-07-12-marmoset-vocal-turn-taking/Sun, 12 Jul 2026 08:56:53 +1000/posts/2026/07/2026-07-12-marmoset-vocal-turn-taking/Researchers analysing 1,245 natural vocal interactions found that wild common marmosets use flexible turn-taking, matched call-response sequences, brief pauses, and very little overlap across both within-group and intergroup exchanges./posts/2026/07/2026-07-11-ant-neuropeptides-division-of-labour/Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:30:59 +1000/posts/2026/07/2026-07-11-ant-neuropeptides-division-of-labour/Long before the dawn of modern parenting, animals laid eggs and moved on, leaving their progeny to fend for themselves. Now, a study published in Nature uncovers one of the elegant ways that evolution transformed neglect into nurture./posts/2026/07/2026-07-11-global-fungal-network-map/Sat, 11 Jul 2026 06:30:59 +1000/posts/2026/07/2026-07-11-global-fungal-network-map/Researchers combined more than 16,000 soil samples with predictive models to map the global density of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks./posts/2026/07/ae-20260703-001/Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260703-001/Here is a practical engineering use of ant colony optimization in directional drilling mechanics. The paper maps bending-energy minimization to artificial ant exploration and reports a 55./posts/2026/07/ae-20260703-002/Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/07/ae-20260703-002/This paper proposes “Embodied Collective Intelligence,” where robot teams share world memory, task progress, and skill experience without becoming a centralized super-agent./posts/2026/06/2026-06-28-pentest-swarm-ai/Sun, 28 Jun 2026 06:31:05 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-28-pentest-swarm-ai/Pentest Swarm AI uses a shared blackboard, pheromone-weighted findings, and decentralized agent triggers to let attack paths emerge instead of following a fixed pipeline./posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-schmidt-ai-safety/Fri, 26 Jun 2026 06:31:43 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-schmidt-ai-safety/This funding call frames AI safety as a population-level problem involving collusion, cascading failures, emergent communication, and collective capabilities. This closes 9-August-2026./posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-int21-gpus/Thu, 25 Jun 2026 06:30:08 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-int21-gpus/INT21’s PTX Kernel Factory uses specialized agent swarms to generate, test, benchmark, and improve low-level GPU kernels across generations. This is a practical software example of evolutionary adaptation: many agents explore candidate solutions, retain evidence, and feed successful traces into the next cycle./posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-palladyne-swarmos/Thu, 25 Jun 2026 06:30:08 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-palladyne-swarmos/Palladyne AI says its SwarmOS software will be tested with U.S. Army warfighters to coordinate heterogeneous unmanned systems without relying on centralized infrastructure./posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-deepmind-roadmap/Tue, 23 Jun 2026 06:30:04 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-27-deepmind-roadmap/Google DeepMind’s roadmap treats future AI agents as operational actors that may need containment, monitoring, and layered controls, borrowing ideas from cybersecurity and safety engineering./posts/2026/06/2026-06-18-darpa-controlled-emergence/Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:36:00 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-18-darpa-controlled-emergence/DARPA’s new DICE (Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence) program may be one of the strongest real-world signals yet that biological coordination principles are moving into operational AI architectures./posts/2026/06/2026-06-17-liquid-democracy/Wed, 17 Jun 2026 06:30:18 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-17-liquid-democracy/AgentSociety proposes a framework where autonomous agents cooperate through mechanisms borrowed from social choice theory and liquid democracy. Agents delegate authority, route information, and form consensus-based decision paths using only local knowledge and incentive-compatible behaviour./posts/2026/06/2026-06-14-dai/Sun, 14 Jun 2026 06:30:35 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-14-dai/29-Nov-2026 Hong Kong - DAI 2026 places coordination, markets, agent infrastructure, and societies of autonomous agents at the center of distributed AI research./posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi-sept-event/Sat, 13 Jun 2026 14:13:31 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi-sept-event/“Agentic AIs are a feral technology… they are projected to become a wild, self-sustaining, population.” Co-organised with Morgan Stanley, this upcoming Santa Fe Institute gathering takes place 15-Sept-2026 in NYC./posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi/Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:32:31 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi/If there is a single institution that has consistently explored how intelligence emerges from interactions rather than instruction, it is the Santa Fe Institute./posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi-ai-and-multi-scale/Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:30:31 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-sfi-ai-and-multi-scale/A notable June event from the Santa Fe Institute, co-sponsored by OpenAI and Google DeepMind, focused on intelligence across multiple organisational and social scales rather than intelligence as an individual phenomenon./posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-discoli/Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:30:31 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-discoli/A June workshop dedicated specifically to distributed collective intelligence, including bio-inspired approaches, decentralized trust systems, artificial life concepts, and collective behavior in smart systems./posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-internet-of-agentic-ai/Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:32:31 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-13-internet-of-agentic-ai/The paper proposes an “Internet of Agentic AI” in which autonomous agents discover each other, negotiate responsibilities, exchange context, coordinate workflows, and operate across organizational boundaries./posts/2026/06/2026-06-07-bees-use-tools/Sun, 07 Jun 2026 07:22:34 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-07-bees-use-tools/Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/04/bees-use-tools-to-solve-problems-study-finds/posts/2026/06/2026-06-07-swarm-intelligence-market/Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:48:34 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-07-swarm-intelligence-market/A recent market analysis projects rapid growth in swarm-intelligence technologies over the coming decade, driven by decentralized coordination requirements across IoT, autonomous systems, and distributed decision-making applications./posts/2026/06/2026-06-06-squid-comm/Sat, 06 Jun 2026 20:48:34 +1000/posts/2026/06/2026-06-06-squid-comm/SQUID-COMM introduces a communications architecture inspired by signalling, coordination, and self-organization mechanisms observed in colossal squid. The framework includes adaptive signalling, decentralized routing, synchronization, and congestion-management concepts./posts/2026/05/2026-05-31-fire-ants/Sun, 31 May 2026 08:38:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-31-fire-ants/Researchers studying fire-ant collectives found evidence that large-scale ripples and movement waves emerge from simple local alignment between neighbouring ants. No central coordination is required for the collective patterns to appear./posts/2026/05/2026-05-31-withzeta/Sun, 31 May 2026 08:30:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-31-withzeta/Lantern Pharma announced ZetaSwarm, a commercially available multi-agent scientific reasoning platform designed to run many specialised AI agents in parallel. The system is intended to support drug discovery and biomedical research workflows./posts/2026/05/2026-05-30-knapsack-in-nature/Sat, 30 May 2026 13:30:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-30-knapsack-in-nature/The knapsack problem is the classic optimisation problem: You have a backpack that can carry only a certain weight. You have a set of items, each with a weight and a value./posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-guiding-cockroaches/Fri, 29 May 2026 06:30:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-guiding-cockroaches/Researchers at the University of Osaka and collaborators have developed a cyborg insect system that reads heartbeat activity, neural signal features, and body movement from cockroaches./posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-bio-magnetic-sensors/Fri, 29 May 2026 06:30:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-bio-magnetic-sensors/Researchers have developed printed magnetic sensors made from naturally sourced and lower-toxicity materials including iron, iron oxide, cellulose, and starch./posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-sea-urchin-robot/Fri, 29 May 2026 06:30:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-29-sea-urchin-robot/Duke University researchers have demonstrated Argus, a 20-legged robot whose sea-urchin-like body gives it near-uniform motion and perception in every direction./posts/2026/05/2026-05-23-boquila/Sat, 23 May 2026 12:56:00 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-23-boquila/This is biomimicry by a plant, and it just shows that nothing humans create will come close to the rich and bizarre natural world./posts/2026/05/2026-05-21-bee-inspired-navigation-robot/Thu, 21 May 2026 06:30:00 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-21-bee-inspired-navigation-robot/Researchers demonstrated a lightweight navigation system inspired by honeybee learning flights that allows small drones to return home using compact visual memories rather than large-scale mapping systems./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarm-based-uavs-could-transform-battlefield-communications/Tue, 19 May 2026 06:30:37 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarm-based-uavs-could-transform-battlefield-communications/The advanced capabilities of AI-based navigation in military drones mean they will no longer require human training. They will rely on near-instantaneous sensor data from cameras, LiDAR, and radar to identify obstacles that will inform their future navigation, such as mountains, structures, and other aircraft./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-european-telecom-consortium-tests-ant-inspired-self-healing-network-routing/Tue, 19 May 2026 06:30:37 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-european-telecom-consortium-tests-ant-inspired-self-healing-network-routing/The consortium demonstrated distributed telecom routing methods based on pheromone-style path reinforcement and stigmergy. The work is notable because it applies swarm coordination principles directly to resilient communications infrastructure, where decentralized adaptation can improve network recovery under congestion or outages./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarm-robotics-firm-demonstrates-cooperative-warehouse-picking-system/Tue, 19 May 2026 06:30:37 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarm-robotics-firm-demonstrates-cooperative-warehouse-picking-system/The system uses decentralized coordination and local signaling inspired by ant colony task allocation to distribute warehouse-picking workloads dynamically across autonomous robots./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarmer-to-lead-development-of-a-deployable-drone-interceptor-system/Mon, 18 May 2026 06:30:54 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-swarmer-to-lead-development-of-a-deployable-drone-interceptor-system/https://therecursive.com/swarmer-ipo-nasdaq-drone-ai-startup/ Swarmer Awarded $2.86M Contract to Outfit SkyKnight Drones With Swarming Software https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/05/13/3293908/0/en/Swarmer-Awarded-2-86M-Contract-to-Outfit-SkyKnight-Drones-With-Swarming-Software.html Drone interception project combines distributed sensing, autonomous coordination, and swarm-style interception behaviors into a lower-cost counter-drone platform./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-applied-intuition-uk-awarded-dstl-contract-to-lead-consortium-accelerating-cutting-edge-sw/Mon, 18 May 2026 06:30:54 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-applied-intuition-uk-awarded-dstl-contract-to-lead-consortium-accelerating-cutting-edge-sw/This UK defence programme targets software-defined swarms with both simulation and live-flight trials. The importance is the transition from swarm experimentation toward engineering toolchains and operational validation platforms intended for repeatable deployment and sovereign industrial capability./posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-bio-inspired-decentralized-mapping-for-autonomous-vehicles/Mon, 18 May 2026 06:30:54 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-20-bio-inspired-decentralized-mapping-for-autonomous-vehicles/Bosch researchers developed a decentralized collaborative mapping system inspired by ant pheromone trails and swarm intelligence. Vehicles share virtual pheromone markers to distribute mapping effort and resolve uncertainty without central coordination, translating stigmergic biological communication into autonomous transport infrastructure./posts/2026/05/2026-05-16-tiny-ants-construction/Sat, 16 May 2026 06:29:10 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-16-tiny-ants-construction/Just call these tiny autonomous construction robots “antdroids” Biomimicry is a significant driver in robot design; like ants, RAnts are too small to possess human-level cognition and memory, so if they’re going to achieve complex goals, they need to out-source, or exbody, their data-processing to their environment./posts/2026/05/2026-05-14-interplanetary-honeybees/Thu, 14 May 2026 06:29:10 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-14-interplanetary-honeybees/Honeybee-inspired swarm framework targets resilient planetary exploration The history of planetary exploration has long been a chronicle of singular, heroic machines./posts/2026/05/2026-05-12-fireflies/Wed, 13 May 2026 06:28:14 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-12-fireflies/Researchers from SUPSI and ETH Zurich developed a firefly-inspired visible-light communication system for nano-drone swarms using LEDs and convolutional neural networks for message decoding./posts/2026/05/2026-05-12-gecko-robotics/Wed, 13 May 2026 06:28:14 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-12-gecko-robotics/Gecko is interesting because it is not a humanoid-robotics hype company. It is a very applied “robots + sensors + asset data” company aimed at boring but valuable infrastructure problems: corrosion, wall thinning, cracking, maintenance scheduling, shutdown reduction, and safety./posts/2026/05/2026-05-11-real-deployment/Mon, 11 May 2026 06:29:10 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-11-real-deployment/A new industry commentary argues that swarm robotics is transitioning from controlled demonstrations into real operational deployment across defence and industrial environments./posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-dolphingemma/Sat, 09 May 2026 16:29:04 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-dolphingemma/While the new AI companies have focussed on LLMs, Google has been spinning off projects from Demis Hassabis’ DeepMind, in AlphaGo, AlphaEvolve, and the Noble prize-winning AlphaFold./posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-bats-as-robots/Sat, 09 May 2026 06:29:04 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-bats-as-robots/Worcester Polytechnic Institute researchers developed a bat-inspired sensing and navigation system that allows palm-sized drones to move through smoke, fog, and visually degraded environments using ultrasound and lightweight onboard AI./posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-internet-of-forest/Sat, 09 May 2026 06:29:04 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-internet-of-forest/Interspecies communication networks about threats can shape animal communities, as many species produce alarm calls while eavesdropping on those of others, resulting in information flow crossing ecological niches and taxonomic boundaries./posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-drone-swarm-patents/Sat, 09 May 2026 06:29:04 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-drone-swarm-patents/A recent patent landscape analysis highlights how biologically inspired swarm coordination methods are being displaced in some military and industrial drone systems by multi-agent reinforcement learning, while still influencing routing, resilience, and distributed control architectures./posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-robot-snails/Sat, 09 May 2026 06:29:04 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-09-robot-snails/Researchers at the University of Hong Kong demonstrated small snail-inspired modular robots that can physically attach to one another using suction-based coupling./posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-drone-inspectors/Fri, 08 May 2026 06:29:07 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-drone-inspectors/A drone coordination stack using stigmergy-inspired signaling enables distributed inspection coverage across large industrial assets. Each drone adapts locally to coverage gaps and environmental conditions without centralized orchestration./posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-mining-swarms/Thu, 07 May 2026 06:28:36 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-mining-swarms/Researchers evaluated ant-inspired robotic coordination strategies for autonomous mining operations, including distributed task allocation and tandem partitioning approaches. The work focuses on improving efficiency and resilience in hazardous industrial environments./posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-autonomous-coordination-through-ai/Thu, 07 May 2026 06:28:36 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-autonomous-coordination-through-ai/Robot swarms are beginning to shift from pre-programmed coordination toward AI-enabled collective autonomy, allowing groups of machines to adapt dynamically without centralized control./posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-asknature-podcast/Wed, 06 May 2026 06:27:48 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-08-asknature-podcast/The Biomimicry Institute has launched a new podcast exploring how biological strategies are translated into engineering and design applications. The series highlights practical pathways from natural systems to real-world technologies./posts/2026/05/2026-05-04-butterfly-drone/Mon, 04 May 2026 06:27:47 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-04-butterfly-drone/A lightweight butterfly-inspired robot achieves fully autonomous flapping-wing flight using bio-inspired control of wing motion and body dynamics. The system operates without tails or external stabilization./posts/2026/05/2026-05-03-patent-coordinated-auvs/Sun, 03 May 2026 06:28:34 +1000/posts/2026/05/2026-05-03-patent-coordinated-auvs/Recent patent analysis shows autonomous underwater systems rapidly evolving toward coordinated swarms and cross-domain teams combining aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-bio-inspired-swarm-uav-framework-search-and-rescue/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-bio-inspired-swarm-uav-framework-search-and-rescue/Scientific Reports published a bio-inspired UAV swarm framework for search and rescue, combining thermal sensing, distributed coordination, and optimization methods including Particle Swarm Optimization, Grey Wolf Optimizer, and Ant Colony Optimization./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-bioinspired-4d-printing-adaptive-building-facades/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-bioinspired-4d-printing-adaptive-building-facades/A Springer Nature Research Communities article describes a plant-inspired adaptive façade using hygromorphic, biobased 4D-printed materials that change shape in response to weather./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-hullbot-autonomous-ship-hull-cleaning-system/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-hullbot-autonomous-ship-hull-cleaning-system/Hullbot’s autonomous in-water hull-cleaning system was recognised by Good Design Australia as a commercial and industrial product for 2025. The robot is designed for scheduled hull maintenance without drydocking, reducing biofouling-related drag while avoiding manual diver exposure and toxic anti-fouling practices./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-liquid.metal/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:30:24 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-liquid.metal/Researchers demonstrated a material made from simple interlocking elements that can transition between rigid and fluid-like states depending on applied forces./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-monitoring-robotic-fish/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:30:24 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-monitoring-robotic-fish/A newly reported biomimetic robotic fish uses undulatory propulsion inspired by real fish to reduce disturbance in aquaculture environments while collecting sensor data./posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-robot-swarm-randomness/Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:30:24 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-26-robot-swarm-randomness/Researchers found that adding small random movements (“wiggling”) to robots in dense swarms prevents congestion and improves throughput. The approach mirrors biological systems where stochastic motion helps ants, cells, and animals avoid deadlock in crowded environments./posts/2026/04/2026-04-18-propolis-anti-scarring/Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-18-propolis-anti-scarring/Bee propolis shuts down raised scars before they take hold A natural compound made by Australian bees to seal their hives may help stop scarring in human skin after surgery, injury and burns, according to University of the Sunshine Coast researchers./posts/2026/04/2026-04-18-whalesong-parallels-human-language/Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-18-whalesong-parallels-human-language/Not only do sperm whale have a form of “alphabet” and form vowels within their vocalizations but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech, the new study has found./posts/2026/04/2026-04-14-german-cyborg-insect-swarm/Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-14-german-cyborg-insect-swarm/A German startup has moved biohybrid swarm systems from concept to field-tested deployment, using living insects equipped with neural interfaces, sensors, and secure communications to operate as coordinated reconnaissance swarms./posts/2026/04/2026-04-07-palladyne-ai-patent/Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1000/posts/2026/04/2026-04-07-palladyne-ai-patent/A newly granted U.S. patent describes a system where heterogeneous robots and sensors coordinate using minimal, high-value data exchange, forming a distributed “collective intelligence” network./posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-bioengineering-plants-glow-light-cities/Sun, 05 Apr 2026 11:09:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-bioengineering-plants-glow-light-cities/Chinese Scientists Bioengineering Plants With Firefly Genes to Glow, in Effort to Light Cities at Night The bioluminescent flora were created by splicing genes from fireflies and glowing fungi into the plant cells, allowing them to emit a soft glow./posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-nato-gets-recon-insects/Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-nato-gets-recon-insects/[Unverified] Reports indicate that SWARM Biotactics has conducted trials and begun supplying bioelectronic insect swarms for reconnaissance, combining living organisms with sensors and coordinated control systems./posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-mechanical-swarm-systems/Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-mechanical-swarm-systems/By encoding interaction rules directly into physical structure, researchers showed that coordinated group behavior can emerge without digital control, sensors, or centralized systems./posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-smartest-robots-may-be-the-dumbest-ones/Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-smartest-robots-may-be-the-dumbest-ones/Georgia Tech researchers developed swarms of simple robotic particles that coordinate and self-organize without electronics, software, or sensing, relying entirely on physical design and local interactions./posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-smart-robots-that-bloom/Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-05-smart-robots-that-bloom/Researchers built modular “SGbots” that communicate locally and collectively adjust their shape—blooming or retracting—to regulate sunlight in real-world window tests./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-bee-brain-inspired-navigation-chips/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-bee-brain-inspired-navigation-chips/Bees navigate their surroundings with astonishing precision. Their brains are now inspiring the design of tiny, low-power chips that could one day guide miniature robots and sensors./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-grasshopper-inspired-glider-wing-research/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-grasshopper-inspired-glider-wing-research/Grasshoppers may not spring to mind as paragons of graceful flight. But for a team of Princeton engineers, these gangly insects have inspired a new approach to robotic wings./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-mits-bumblebee-like-aerial-microrobot/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-mits-bumblebee-like-aerial-microrobot/In the future, tiny flying robots could be deployed to aid in the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-moth-wing-inspired-acoustics/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-moth-wing-inspired-acoustics/This moth-wing-inspired acoustic technology is a strong near-term applicability story because the biological idea is being turned into ultra-thin sound absorption for real interior environments./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-sparxell-raises-plant-based-colour/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-sparxell-raises-plant-based-colour/Sparxell is on a mission to revolutionise the world of industrial colourants. Its patented technology uses cellulose from wood pulp to create structural colour – the same principle that creates iridescent butterfly wings – eliminating petroleum-based chemicals, titanium dioxide and toxic heavy metals and minerals./posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-paint-impact-colour/Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-03-paint-impact-colour/Researchers at Tufts University have developed a biomimetic coating that changes color when struck, revealing both the location and approximate strength of an impact without needing embedded electronics./posts/2026/04/2026-04-02-insect-inspired-odour-tracking-robot/Thu, 02 Apr 2026 14:08:00 +1100/posts/2026/04/2026-04-02-insect-inspired-odour-tracking-robot/Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Informatics and collaborators built an insect-inspired robot that can keep tracking an odor source even when one of its two odor sensors fails, by copying the adaptive behavior of silkmoths, which can still navigate with only one antenna./posts/2026/03/2026-03-29-ant-inspired-robots-using-pheromone-based-communication-cos-phi-system/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-29-ant-inspired-robots-using-pheromone-based-communication-cos-phi-system/This article reports on a robot system inspired by how ants communicate using pheromone trails. Instead of real chemicals, the robots follow artificial “pheromone” signals so they can coordinate with one another and make group decisions in a similar way to ants./posts/2026/03/2026-03-29-automatic-design-of-stigmergy-based-behaviours-for-robot-swarms/Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-29-automatic-design-of-stigmergy-based-behaviours-for-robot-swarms/Leaving breadcrumbs (well, pheronome trails) to lead the way. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10956014//posts/2026/03/2026-03-28-a-unified-stochastic-mechanism-underlying-collective-behavior-in-ants-physical-s/Sat, 28 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-28-a-unified-stochastic-mechanism-underlying-collective-behavior-in-ants-physical-s/Fractals! Ant colonies, materials like gases and liquids, and robot swarms may all follow a similar underlying pattern: lots of individuals behaving somewhat randomly, but still producing large-scale collective behaviour./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-a-concept-for-bio-agentic-visual-communication/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-a-concept-for-bio-agentic-visual-communication/This paper explores a way for drones to communicate with each other visually, instead of relying on radio, by copying signalling ideas from animals like bees, deer, and peacocks./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-belowground-ants-follow-pheromones/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-belowground-ants-follow-pheromones/This study shows ants make faster pheromone-guided decisions in low-distraction environments, suggesting that signal clarity vs. environmental noise is a critical factor in stigmergic coordination./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-biomimicry-instituteray-of-hope/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-biomimicry-instituteray-of-hope/The accelerator targets startups explicitly using biological signalling, coordination, and adaptation principles. These programs often surface applied implementations of swarm intelligence and collective sensing before they appear in formal literature./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-consensus-achieving-algorithm-for-robot-swarms/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-consensus-achieving-algorithm-for-robot-swarms/The algorithm models ant nest-selection behaviour to solve the “best-of-n” consensus problem using only local signalling. It demonstrates how response thresholds, recruitment, and biasing mechanisms enable robust distributed agreement without central control./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-dancing-on-the-edge-honey-bee-recruitment-networks-are-structured-and-dynamic/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-dancing-on-the-edge-honey-bee-recruitment-networks-are-structured-and-dynamic/This paper looked at how honey bees pass on food-location information through the waggle dance, and found that these recruitment networks are actually quite thin rather than densely connected./posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-honeybees-use-dance-communication-to-form-expectations-about-landscapes/Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-27-honeybees-use-dance-communication-to-form-expectations-about-landscapes/Honeybees do more than just follow the “direction and distance” in another bee’s waggle dance. They seem to combine that message with their own memory of landmarks in the landscape, so they can form an expectation of what the route should look like and fly more efficiently./posts/2026/03/2026-03-26-collective-intelligence-in-animals-and-robots/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-26-collective-intelligence-in-animals-and-robots/This article says animals in groups, like bees, fish, or birds, can solve problems together through many small local interactions, and engineers are using those same ideas to build robot swarms that can act without a central controller./posts/2026/03/2026-03-26-insect-scale-robots-with-embodied-intelligence/Thu, 26 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-26-insect-scale-robots-with-embodied-intelligence/Anyone remember smart dust? A cloud of sensors were thrown from a plane into a .. real cloud to study storms, wind patterns, etc./posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-consensus-achieving-algorithm-for-robot-swarms-inspired-by-ant-collective-decisi/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-consensus-achieving-algorithm-for-robot-swarms-inspired-by-ant-collective-decisi/This paper describes a new way for groups of robots to make a shared choice, based on how ants seem to decide on the best new nest./posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-how-ai-and-new-sensing-tools-are-reshaping-collective-animal-behavior-research/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-how-ai-and-new-sensing-tools-are-reshaping-collective-animal-behavior-research/New tools such as AI, automated tracking, drones, and even virtual reality are letting scientists watch animal groups like flocks, schools, and swarms in far more detail than before./posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-pheromone-focused-ant-colony-optimization-algorithm-for-path-planning/Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-25-pheromone-focused-ant-colony-optimization-algorithm-for-path-planning/This paper describes an improved ant-inspired algorithm for finding good paths, such as routes for robots or navigation systems. Instead of searching too randomly, it puts more attention on promising areas early, strengthens better routes as it learns, and discourages unnecessary turns, so it finds smoother and better paths faster./posts/2026/03/2026-03-24-ants-2026-international-conference-on-swarm-intelligence-research-track-highligh/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-24-ants-2026-international-conference-on-swarm-intelligence-research-track-highligh/8-10 June 2026 in sunny Germany. ANTS solicits contributions dealing with any aspect of swarm intelligence. Typical, but not exclusive, topics of interest are:/posts/2026/03/2026-03-24-future-direction-aware-flocking-via-velocity-prediction/Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-24-future-direction-aware-flocking-via-velocity-prediction/This paper looks at how robot swarms can move more smoothly by not only reacting to what nearby robots are doing now, but also by briefly predicting where they are about to move next./posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-biomimetic-intelligence-and-robotics-research-highlights/Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-biomimetic-intelligence-and-robotics-research-highlights/Here are 13 peer-reviewed publications on the infrastructure to make embodied intelligence possible. In order you will find: 1. Human–robot object handover This review surveys how robots pass objects to people and receive them back, framing handover as a foundational capability for human–robot collaboration./posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-birdsong-study-offers-new-insight-into-the-power-of-non-artificial-intelligence/Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-birdsong-study-offers-new-insight-into-the-power-of-non-artificial-intelligence/If you’re the kind of person who can’t help finishing other peoples’ sentences for them, don’t worry; you can blame it on evolution./posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-emotional-modulation-in-swarm-decision-dynamics/Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100/posts/2026/03/2026-03-23-emotional-modulation-in-swarm-decision-dynamics/Do emotions and varying environmental stimuli affect the swarms choice of location for the hive? https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09963/posts/2025/10/updated-site/Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:37:10 +1000/posts/2025/10/updated-site/New website is live! In August 2024 the former adappt.io was renamed to adaptive-emergent.com to narrow the scope from web3 distributed networks to biomimetic ones (read the three part series on this starting here)./posts/2025/10/encycle/Sat, 25 Oct 2025 15:33:20 +1000/posts/2025/10/encycle/From commercial HVAC to coordinated “swarm intelligence” Encycle is an energy-technology company with origins in Toronto, developing software that helps buildings use less energy and respond more flexibly to the power grid./posts/2025/10/opteran/Sat, 25 Oct 2025 14:48:10 +1000/posts/2025/10/opteran/From Sheffield research to “natural intelligence” Opteran Technologies (registered in the UK as Opteran Technologies Limited) is a spin-out from University of Sheffield that formally incorporated in March 2020./about/Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:17:00 +0600/about/About adaptive emergent We are stripping back modern software and exploring software the Nature intended. Many simple nodes with simple rules (“instincts”) built in that combined together create something quite different and in many instances, unexpected./privacy-policy/Sat, 20 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +1000/privacy-policy/Privacy Policy Last updated: September-2025 Overview We respect your privacy. This website does not use cookies, analytics tools, or tracking technologies./posts/2025/09/entangled-1/Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:04:04 +0800/posts/2025/09/entangled-1//posts/2024/03/book-buchmann/Tue, 12 Mar 2024 17:16:05 +0800/posts/2024/03/book-buchmann/At adaptive-emergent, we are looking for simple behaviours in nature that add up to quite complex ones. The resulting model can be used to massively scale basic business rules into a whole that is more than the sum of its parts./contact/Sat, 16 Oct 2021 11:07:10 +0600/contact/Get in touch. If you want to rediscover how Nature coordinates behaviour, come along with us./elements/Sat, 16 Oct 2021 11:07:10 +0600/elements/Heading H1 Heading H2 Heading H3 Heading H4 Heading H5 Heading H6 Heading paragraph Did you come here for something in particular or just general Riker-bashing?/search/Mon, 24 Sep 2018 11:07:10 +0600/search//gallery/ant-trails/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/ant-trails/A Canvas2D ant trail simulation showing pheromone reinforcement, fading memory, and obstacle routing./gallery/bat-echolocation/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/bat-echolocation/A calm Canvas2D exhibit showing bats using visible echolocation pulses to avoid obstacles./gallery/bee-foraging/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/bee-foraging/A calm Canvas2D exhibit showing scouts, nectar discovery, recruitment, and distributed colony attention./gallery/boids/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/boids/A first-pass Canvas2D flocking demo inspired by starling murmurations./gallery/crowd-flow/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/crowd-flow/A calm Canvas2D exhibit showing pedestrians moving toward destinations while avoiding neighbours, pillars, gates, and bottlenecks./gallery/highlife/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/highlife/An interactive Canvas2D demonstration of the self-replicating B36/S23 Life-like rule./gallery/life/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/life/An interactive Canvas2D implementation of Conway’s Game of Life./gallery/memes/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/memes/A planned Canvas2D exhibit showing how cultural patterns are copied, varied, selected, and recombined./gallery/rumours/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/rumours/A planned Canvas2D exhibit showing how claims spread, fade, and mutate through social networks./gallery/slime-mould/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/gallery/slime-mould/A calm Canvas2D exhibit showing branching growth, nutrient discovery, reinforced veins, pruning, and obstacle routing./thank-you/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000/thank-you/Your message has been sent successfully. 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