Swarm robotics is a field of robotics that studies how large numbers of relatively simple robots can interact and cooperate to perform complex tasks. Inspired by the collective behavior of social insects (like ants, bees, and termites) and flocking birds, swarm robotics emphasizes decentralization, scalability, and robustness. There is no central controller; instead, each robot follows simple local rules (like 'move towards the center of your neighbors' or 'avoid collision'). From these local interactions, complex global behaviors emerge, such as formation control, collective transport, and area exploration.
Emerging in the late 1980s and 1990s as a reaction to the complexity of individual robots, drawing heavy inspiration from biological studies of self-organization in nature (e.g., Reynolds' Boids algorithm in 1987).
Applications are expanding into search and rescue (swarms of drones covering a disaster area), agriculture (precision farming), environmental monitoring, and construction. It represents a shift from 'one complex robot' to 'many simple robots'.