A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science and the University of Maryland has taken inspiration from honeycomb bees to devise a system of robot communication that can be used in places where the network coverage is absent or unreliable, such as disaster zones or outer space.
Imitating the "wiggle dance" that bees use to tell their sisters about the location of nectar-rich flowers, the robots are able to trace a shape on the floor. The shape's orientation and the time it takes to trace tell the second robot the required direction and distance of travel to deliver a package.
The scientists published their findings in a study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, describing how the team designed a visual communication system for robots with on-board cameras, using algorithms that allow the robots to interpret what they see and also help humans communicate with them using gestures.
The system was tested using a simple task, in which...