MMAE Assoc. Professor Matthew Spenko on Swarm Robotics

Armour College of Engineering MMAE Associate Professor of Mech. Engineering Matthew Spenko, Ph.D. was asked to comment on an article in The Columbia Chronicle about the TERMES project. Researchers have created robots that utilize swarm intelligence to build complex structures. The team was inspired by termites, who construct complex structures as a group, but have a limited view of the entire project and work independently.

Spenko reminds us that “Swarm robotics has been around for the past 15 years, the TERMES project is a promising step in taking the technology from the lab to real world scenarios because the researchers have the robots performing complex tasks based on simple guidelines.” Spenko states that researchers need to take that step and bring these swarm robots out of a predictable lab environment in order to improve their functions. “Once we see that breakthrough, we’ll start seeing some swarms, but it’s definitely there and possible,” Spenko said. “I don’t think it’s in the five-year horizon. I think it’s a little bit further off than that.”