Skip to main content
Northwestern University

Swarm Robotics and Decentralized Computation

A wide range of networked systems exhibit emergent behavior. In nature, for example, flocks of birds, schools of fish, and swarms of bees all develop cohesive global behavior from purely local interactions. The goal of our research is to develop the tools necessary to design local control, communication, and estimation laws for individual agents that yield a desired group behavior.

Research Topics

Simulation of a design for controlling swarm formation.

Control and optimization for robot swarms

Fully constructed FireAnt; a modular robot designed with conductive plastic.

Modular self-reconfigurable robotics

Rotorcraft prototype sensor on a quadrotor vehicle, showing pickup LED.

Novel sensing for swarms of simple air vehicles

Drawings for table versus world frame from a mobile robot with independent control and external actuation.

External actuation of swarm robots

Researcher overseeing a swarm of small robots on the floor in the shape of the Northwestern logo.

Swarm shape control

Two researchers engaging with multiple swarm robots on the floor of the robotics laboratory.

Human-swarm interaction

We develop algorithms that enable autonomy to automatically react to human sensory and perception needs to improve situational awareness.

Five small, cubic robots herded together into a circular blue frame.

Algorithmic matter

We develop computational models to enable the design of microrobots with minimal actuation, sensing, and computation.

Three fingers holding a micro-satellite with components labeled for viewer.

Bio-inspired satellite constellation control

Back to top