Collective Robotics for Life Scientists

许多科学家在广泛的尺度上研究自然界中的集体行为；从细胞如何合作到蚂蚁群体、鱼群甚至人类群体中许多个人的相互作用。低成本的机器人群系统，如Kilobots，可以让生命科学家在受控但仍然有形的合成环境中研究感兴趣的基本生物设计原理。这笔教育补助金正在开发一个为期两周的动手研讨会，教授生命科学家如何对集体机器人系统进行编程，以及如何在他们的研究和课堂教学中使用这些系统，以获得对集体行为研究的洞察力。

Many scientists study collective behavior in nature at a wide range of scales; from how cells cooperate to the interaction of many individuals in ant colonies, fish schools, and even human crowds. Low-cost robot swarm systems, such as the Kilobots, can allow life scientists to investigate fundamental biological design principles of interest in a controlled but still tangible synthetic context. This educational grant is developing a two-week hands-on workshop to teach life scientists how to program collective robotics systems and how to use them in their research and classroom teaching to gain insight in their study of collective behavior.