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upstart writes:

Bees' 'waggle dance' may revolutionize how robots talk to each other in disaster zones:

Where are those flowers and how far away are they? This is the crux of the "waggle dance" performed by honeybees to alert others to the location of nectar-rich flowers. A new study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI has taken inspiration from this technique to devise a way for robots to communicate.

The first robot traces a shape on the floor, and the shape's orientation and the time it takes to trace it tell the second robot the required direction and distance of travel. The technique could prove invaluable in situations where robot labor is required but network communications are unreliable, such as in a disaster zone or in space.

[...] This ingenious method of communication inspired the researchers behind this latest study to apply it to the world of robotics. Robot cooperation allows multiple robots to coordinate and complete complex tasks. Typically, robots communicate using digital networks, but what happens when these are unreliable, such as during an emergency or in remote locations? Moreover, how can humans communicate with robots in such a scenario?

To address this, the researchers designed a visual communication system for robots with on-board cameras, using algorithms that allow the robots to interpret what they see. They tested the system using a simple task, where a package in a warehouse needs to be moved. The system allows a human to communicate with a "messenger robot," which supervises and instructs a "handling robot" that performs the task.

[...] "This technique could be useful in places where communication network coverage is insufficient and intermittent, such as robot search-and-rescue operations in disaster zones or in robots that undertake space walks," said Prof Abhra Roy Chowdhury of the Indian Institute of Science, senior author on the study.

Video included with robot narrator.

Journal Reference:
Joshi, Kaustubh, Roy Chowdhury, Abhra. Bio-Inspired Vision and Gesture-Based Robot-Robot Interaction for Human-Cooperative Package Delivery, Frontiers in Robotics and AI (DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2022.915884)

Original Submission