(Press-News.org) Birds flock in order to forage and move more efficiently. Fish school to avoid predators. And bees swarm to reproduce. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have sought to mimic these natural behaviors as a way to potentially improve search-and-rescue operations or to identify areas of wildfire spread over vast areas—largely through coordinated drone or robotic movements. However, developing a means to control and utilize this type of AI—or “swarm intelligence”—has proved challenging.
In a newly published paper, an international team of scientists describes a framework designed to advance swarm intelligence—by controlling flocking and swarming in ways that are akin to what occurs in nature.
“One of the great challenges of designing robotic swarms is finding a decentralized control mechanism,” explains Matan Yah Ben Zion, an assistant professor at the Donders Center for Cognition at the Netherlands’ Radboud University and one of the authors of the paper, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Fish, bees, and birds do this very well—they form magnificent structures and function without a singular leader or a directive. By contrast, synthetic swarms are nowhere near as agile—and controlling them for large-scale purposes is not yet possible.”
The research team, which included NYU scientists Mathias Casiulis and Stefano Martiniani, addressed these challenges by developing geometric design rules for the clustering of self-propelled particles. These rules are modeled using natural computation—similar to the “positive” or “negative” charges in protons and electrons that are foundational to the formation of matter.
Under these rules, active particles moving in response to external force have an intrinsic property that causes them to curve—a quantity the researchers call “curvity.”
“This curvature drives the collective behavior of the swarm, which points to a means to potentially control whether the swarm flocks, flows, or clusters,” explains NYU’s Martiniani, an assistant professor of physics, chemistry, and mathematics.
Their conclusion was supported by a series of experiments in which the scientists showed that the curvature-based criterion controls robot-pair attraction and naturally extends to thousands of robots. Each robot was treated as having a positive or negative curvity, and similar to electric charge, this curvity controls the robots’ mutual interactions.
“This charge-like quantity, which we call ‘curvity,’ can take positive or negative values and can be directly encoded into the mechanical structure of the robot,” explains Ben Zion. “As with particle charges, the value of the curvity determines how robots become attracted to one another in order to cluster or deflect from one another in order to flock.”
Ben Zion, who as an NYU student previously developed microscopic swimmers added: “Finding a design rule of geometric nature, such as curvature, makes it applicable to industrial or delivery robots or to cellular-sized microscopic robots that have potential to improve drug delivery and other medical treatments.”
“The best part is that these rules are based on elementary mechanics, making their implementation in a physical robot straightforward,” adds Casiulis, a postdoctoral researcher at New York University’s Center for Soft Matter Research and NYU’s Simons Center for Computational Physical Chemistry. “More broadly, this work transforms the challenge of controlling swarms into an exercise in material science, offering a simple design rule to inform future swarm engineering.”
The study’s other authors were Tel Aviv University researchers Eden Arbel, Yoav Lahini, and Naomi Oppenheimer and Radboud University researcher Charlotte van Waes.
# # #
END
Scientists find curvy answer to harnessing “swarm intelligence”
Breakthrough offers way to develop AI to match flocking birds and schooling fish
2025-09-09
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
PALOMA-2 study: Subcutaneous amivantamab every 4 weeks plus lazertinib shows high response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain--September 9, 2025 at 11:30 AM CEST / UTC +2)— A new analysis from the PALOMA-2 study presented today shows that subcutaneous administration of amivantamab every four weeks (Q4W), in combination with daily oral lazertinib, yields a high objective response rate in patients with previously untreated EGFR-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The results were presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer at the 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).
In the fully enrolled Cohort 5 of the PALOMA-2 trial, the Q4W dosing regimen was shown to maintain similar efficacy compared ...
First 3D real-time imaging of hydrogen’s effect on stainless steel defects opens the way to a safer hydrogen economy
2025-09-09
A study led by University of Oxford and Brookhaven National Laboratory researchers has uncovered how exposure to hydrogen atoms dynamically alters the internal structure of stainless steel.
The findings reveal that hydrogen allows internal defects in steel to move in ways not normally possible – which can lead to unexpected failure.
This discovery offers vital insights that could help make hydrogen fuel systems safer and more reliable, from aircraft and fusion reactors to pipelines and storage tanks.
The study has been published today (9 Sept) ...
Circulating tumor DNA may guide immunotherapy use in limited-stage SCLC, new study shows
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — A new study presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) demonstrates that monitoring circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can refine and personalize the use of consolidation immunotherapy in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC).
The research, led by scientists at the National Cancer Center of China, assessed ctDNA in 177 patients with LS-SCLC treated with chemoradiotherapy (CCRT), 77 of whom received consolidation immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Circulating tumor DNA was measured ...
Novel immunotherapy strategy shows promising long-term survival in advanced NSCLC patients with inadequate response to immune checkpoint inhibitors
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) – A new study presented today reports encouraging long-term survival outcomes from an experimental viral immunotherapy, CAN-2409, in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who previously failed to respond adequately to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).
The study was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer.
The phase 2a clinical trial investigated the efficacy of two intratumoral injections of CAN-2409 combined with an oral prodrug (valacyclovir) in ...
Surgery after EGFR TKI shows promise in prolonging progression-free survival in metastatic NSCLC
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — A randomized Phase II trial from National Taiwan University Hospital reports early evidence that resecting the primary thoracic tumor following EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy may prolong disease control in patients with metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The study was presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).
The trial, which enrolled both oligometastatic and polymetastatic patients, is the first to assess surgical ...
Lung Cancer Europe study highlights communication gaps and need for shared decision-making
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — A large-scale survey conducted by Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE) has identified critical communication barriers that affect information access, understanding, and shared decision-making among lung cancer patients and caregivers across Europe.
The research was reported at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).
The study, based on 2,040 valid survey responses from 34 WHO European Region countries in 20 languages, evaluated three key areas: general knowledge about lung cancer, access to information, ...
FANSS study demonstrates feasibility of U.S.-based lung cancer screening in Asian female nonsmokers
2025-09-09
(Barcelona, Spain September 9, 2025, 10:15 a.m. CEST / UTC +2) — Results from the Female Asian Nonsmoker Screening Study (FANSS) highlight the potential value of low-dose CT (LDCT) screening for lung cancer among a growing but underserved population: Asian women with no history of smoking.
The study results were reported today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).
FANSS is the first known lung cancer screening program in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to ...
Well-publicized polar geoengineering ideas will not help and could harm, warn experts
2025-09-09
Five well-publicized polar geoengineering ideas are highly unlikely to help the polar regions and could harm ecosystems, communities, international relations, and our chances of reaching net zero by 2050.
This is according to a new assessment, published in Frontiers in Science, which looked at five of the most developed geoengineering proposals currently being considered for use in Antarctica and the Arctic.
The polar regions are home to fragile communities and ecosystems, as well as most of the world’s ice. Technological ‘geoengineering’ approaches have been proposed to delay or address the impacts of climate ...
Racial stereotypes can make us see weapons where they don’t exist
2025-09-09
Unarmed Black civilians are three times more likely to be shot and killed by police officers than unarmed white civilians in the U.S. In tragic cases in recent years, unarmed Black men holding innocuous objects like a wallet, cell phone, or vape pen were killed by police officers because those objects were misidentified as weapons. These split-second fatal mistakes, often under ambiguous and stressful conditions, have sparked urgent debates about their causes and how to fix them.
A new brain-imaging study from researchers at Columbia University ...
“Bottlebrush” particles deliver big chemotherapy payloads directly to cancer cells
2025-09-09
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using tiny particles shaped like bottlebrushes, MIT chemists have found a way to deliver a large range of chemotherapy drugs directly to tumor cells.
To guide them to the right location, each particle contains an antibody that targets a specific tumor protein. This antibody is tethered to bottlebrush-shaped polymer chains carrying dozens or hundreds of drug molecules — a much larger payload than can be delivered by any existing antibody-drug conjugates.
In mouse models of breast and ovarian cancer, the researchers found that treatment with ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Scientists create ChatGPT-like AI model for neuroscience to build one of the most detailed mouse brain maps to date
AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease
2023 ocean heatwave ‘unprecedented but not unexpected’
Johns Hopkins researchers develop AI to predict risk of US car crashes
New drug combination offers hope for men with advanced prostate cancer
New discovery finds gene converts insulin-producing cells into blood-sugar boosters
Powerful and precise multi-color lasers now fit on a single chip
Scientists agree chemicals can affect behavior, but industry workers more reluctant about safety testing
DNA nanospring measures cellular motor power
Elsevier Foundation and RIKEN launch “Envisioning Futures” report: paving the way for gender equity and women’s leadership in Japanese research
Researchers discover enlarged areas of the spinal cord in fish, previously found only in four-limbed vertebrates
Bipolar disorder heterogeneity decoded: transforming global psychiatric treatment approaches
Catching Alport syndrome through universal age-3 urine screening
Instructions help you remember something better than emotions or a good night’s sleep
Solar energy is now the world’s cheapest source of power, a Surrey study finds
Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice using nanoparticles
‘Good’ gut bacteria boosts placenta for healthier pregnancy
USC team demonstrates first optical device based on “optical thermodynamics”
Microplastics found to change gut microbiome in first human-sample study
Artificially sweetened and sugary drinks are both associated with an increased risk of liver disease, study finds
Plastic in the soil, but not as we know it: Biodegradable microplastics rewire carbon storage in farm fields
Yeast proteins reveal the secrets of drought resistance
Psychiatry, primary care, and OB/GYN subspecialties hit hardest by physician attrition
New Canadian study reveals where HIV hides in different parts of the body
Lidocaine poisonings rise despite overall drop in local anesthetic toxicity
Politics follow you on the road
Scientists blaze new path to fighting viral diseases
The mouse eye as a window to spotting systemic disease
AI and the Future of Cancer Research and Cancer Care to headline October 24 gathering of global oncology leaders at the National Press Club: NFCR Global Summit to feature top scientists, entrepreneurs
FDA clears UCLA heart tissue regeneration drug AD-NP1 for clinical trials
[Press-News.org] Scientists find curvy answer to harnessing “swarm intelligence”Breakthrough offers way to develop AI to match flocking birds and schooling fish