Social Integration of Robots into Groups of Cockroaches to Control Self-Organized Choices

I personally dont like cockroaches very much, but this experiment is amazing..

Social Integration of Robots into Groups of Cockroaches to Control Self-Organized Choices, ETH Zuerich

Collective behavior based on self-organization has been shown in group-living animals from insects to vertebrates.

These findings have stimulated engineers to investigate approaches for the coordination of autonomous multirobot systems based on self-organization. In this experimental study, we show collective decision-making by mixed groups of cockroaches and socially integrated autonomous robots, leading to shared shelter selection.

Individuals, natural or artificial, are perceived as equivalent, and the collective decision emerges from nonlinear feedbacks based on local interactions.

Even when in the minority, robots can modulate the collective decision-making process and produce a global pattern not observed in their absence.

These results demonstrate the possibility of using intelligent autonomous devices to study and control self-organized behavioral patterns in group-living animals.

Winter in Austria

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas with some wintery pictures from close to where I live..

More pictures from the Cote d´ Azur

Take a break with a joke

A blonde walked up to a coke machine, put in a dollar, and got out a coke. She then put in another dollar, and got another coke. Again and again, she put in more and more dollars and got out more and more cokes.

As she was doing this, a man came and stood behind her. he tapped her on her shoulder, and said “What on earth are you doing?”

She replied angrily ” Shut up! Cant you see im winning?!”

Holiday pictures from Monaco, Cote d´Azur

Diano Marina at the Italian Rivera

A beautiful village my last trip took me to is Diano Marina near San Remo, Italy.
The Gulf of Diana is one of the most important tourist areas in the Riviera of Flowers and Liguria. Close to the seaside towns, rich in hotels, architecture, restaurants and sport centres, we find the beauty of the countryside, and discover nature and medieval hamlets, with their charming echoes of the past.
The Gulf of Diana is a crown, and seven are its gems: Diano Marina is the most important one, and its name derives from the ancient devotion to the Roman Goddess Diana.

Diano Castello is one of the most charming villages, and was the administrative centre, with its “castrum” (village surrounded by stone walls). Today known for its Vermentino vineyards; Diano Arentino and Diano San Pietro, with their hamlets, are the heart of olive oil cultivation in the valley since earliest times. San Bartolomeo al Mare, on the coast, has one of the most beautiful seaside promenades of the Riviera; Cervo appears as a jewel looking out to sea, and Villa Faraldi, in the countryside, is famous for its Theatre Festival in summer. These last three villages form the other side of the valley of the Gulf of Diana, around the river Steria.