MSS 2014 - Workshop on Modular and Swarm Systems - from Nature to Robotics

This full-day workshop creates a forum to review the state of the art of, and discuss future directions and challenges for, the highly interdisciplinary fields of modular robotics and swarm robotics. Modularity is a concept well exploited by natural systems where relatively simple modules form highly complex structures. Through interaction between and continuous replacement or regeneration of these relatively low-cost modules, nature creates systems with a versatility and robustness that so far no artificial system can match. In swarm systems, physically independent entities or modules collaborate to perform common tasks. The fields of modular and swarm robotics have shown to be an ideal playground to study, for instance, self-organization, self-assembly, self-repair, adaptation, collaboration, social interaction, distributed intelligence, smart materials in robotic and natural systems. Over the past years many highly developed robotic systems have been presented. During this workshop we will bring together many of these systems in an exhibition. An active participation of early-career researchers and of those new to IROS is highly encouraged. Experts from a range of disciplines will share their experience and views on the future of these research fields.
Contributions are sought in the following areas:
modular reconfigurable systems (e.g. robotic, biological, chemical)
swarm and self-organizing systems (e.g. robotic, biological, chemical)
self-assembly and self-repair (e.g. robotic, biological, chemical)
smart materials, programmable matter, amorphous computing
social systems and mixed animal-robot societies
distributed evolutionary and collaborative systems