Just as survival of the fittest has steered the evolution of all the life forms on earth, the organs and biological systems inside Mother Nature’s creations hold examples of behaviors for researchers to mimic.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have found that bacteria collectively gather information about their environment and find an optimal path to growth, even in the most complex terrains. Their decision-making processes and collective behaviors allow them to thrive and spread efficiently even in difficult environments. Although researchers in the past have studied collective navigation for swarm robotics in animals such as fish, bees and birds, they have found that bacteria have a certain self-confidence which sets them apart.

When a subgroup of animals such as fish, bees and birds swarm, based on wrong information, they could lead the entire group in the wrong direction. However, according to the research, bacteria communicate differently, through molecular, chemical and mechanical means, which helps avoid this. When an individual bacterium finds a more beneficial path, it pays less attention to the signals from the other cells. But at other times, upon encountering challenging paths, the individual cell will increase its interaction with the other cells and learn from its peers. Since each of the cells adopts the same strategy, the group as a whole is able to find an optimal trajectory in an extremely complex terrain.

Potential applications for swarm robotics include tasks that demand miniaturization such as nanorobotics and microbotics, distributed sensing tasks in micromachinery or the human body, as well as tasks that demand cheap designs, such as in mining or agriculture, and more.