Swarm robotics is an approach to the coordination of multiple robots as a system that consists of large numbers of simple physical robots. It is supposed that a desired collective b emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment. This approach emerged in the field of artificial swarm intelligence, as well as the biological studies of insects, ants, and other fields in nature, where warm behaviour occurs. 

Swarm Robotics

  Swarm behavior in nature 

 Relatively simple individual rules can produce a large set of complex swarm behaviours. A key component is acommunication between the members of the group which builds a system of constant feedback. The swarm behaviour involves a constant change of individuals in cooperation with others, as well as the behaviour of the whole group. development of simple robots for Swarm intelligence research is a very important aspect of the field. The goals include keeping the cost of individual robots low to allow scalability, making each member of the swarm less demanding of resources and more power/energy efficient. 

Applications of swarm robotics

Swarm robotics will hopefully allow us to solve some of the most complex problems plaguing us today. Their ability to scale and adapt to any environment means they can apply human ingenuity to nearly any situation. 

Climate Change:  It has been extensively researched as a prospective way to bolster failing ecosystems in the face of climate change and other natural catastrophes. Swarm robotics could potentially be scaled to create artificial bees and insects that could pollinate crops and other key plants to ensure their survival and prevent a disastrous famine 

Military: It has also been theorized that the principles of swarm robotics could be used to almost replace conventional armies entirely. We’ve already seen robotics being heavily used in various air-forces around the world in the form of autonomous drones, and the US navy has experimented with robotic navies that can react to threats in real time. 

(a) Military Swarms 

Agriculture: By using this technique we can easily sow the seed, harvest, and store the grains in the warehouse; thus, the workload of farmers gets decreased, and they will be able give their time to think how the production can be increased. 

(a) Agricultural Swarms     

Medical Application: The use of nanorobots that move through human veins and arteries that they fight against certain types of cancer. It is useful for disaster relief that people cannot go to. Swarm robots are easy to deploy, so you can use them wherever you need help to find your target. It can also be used for distributed agent deployment and area coverage for drug delivery 

(a) Healthcare Swarms

(b) Drug delivery Swarms 

Hospital Management: Some of the hospital functions that might be automated include delivering linens, making beds, clerical duties such as entering patient records into computer file, delivering medicines and supplies from the hospital pharmacy and central supply, and transporting patients for different services in the building 

Industry: Robots may be used to perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to implement directly (e.g. nuclear waste clean-up) or may be used to automate repetitive tasks that can be performed more cheaply by a robot than by the employment of a human (e.g. automobile production, shopping malls, hotels, etc) or may be used to automate mindless repetitive tasks that should be performed with more precision by a robot than by a human(material handling, material transfer applications, machine loading and unloading, processing operations, assembly and inspection). 

The use of swarm robotic systems is gaining wide acceptance and is being incorporated for military and naval applications. High reliability and availability are being achieved. Extensive research and manufacturing solutions have evolved to make these swarms a possibility for diversified applications.  The robotic community as a whole look forward to embracing this new age innovation under robotics which will serve the mankind.