BlueSwarm, swarm of biologically-inspired little underwater explorers, Self-organizing Systems Research Group (SSR Lab Harvard), Harvard University, C

A team of researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed fish-inspired robots that can synchronize their movements like a real school of fish, without any external control. It is the first time researchers have demonstrated complex 3D collective behaviors with implicit coordination in underwater robots.

Click to expand...

Blueswarm is a collective of fish-inspired miniature underwater robots
that can achieve a wide variety of 3D collective behaviors -
synchrony, aggregation/dispersion, milling, search - using only
implicit communication mediated through the production and sensing of
blue light. We envision this platform for investigating collective AI,
underwater coordination, and fish-inspired locomotion and sensing.

For more information, see our publication:

Florian Berlinger, Melvin Gauci, Radhika Nagpal. 2020. “Implicit coordination for 3D underwater collective behaviors in a fish-inspired robot swarm.” Science Robotics, Jan 2021.
(Supplemental Movie 1)

Click to expand...

Bluebot swims with a Bluegill Sunfish and a school of Rainbow trout, in George Lauder's Lab. Video by Florian Berlinger with the Lauder Lab.

Click to expand...