Harnessing heterogeneity in natural systems to engineer future robot swarms

In self-organised animal groups, heterogeneity can greatly influence the collective behaviours that provide benefits for social living. Increasingly, heterogeneity is recognised as important in the development of robot swarms, with potential to improve the collective performance of behaviours such as navigation, decision-making, and spatial organisation. However, the application of heterogeneity in swarms has been limited. We seek to address this by highlighting how heterogeneity in animal groups, based on transient leadership, personality variation, polyethism, and morphology, can be harnessed to engineer future robot swarms.