Artificial Intelligence IV - Swarm Intelligence

In this unit, together with Swarm Intelligence II, the student will learn about the collective action of decentralized, self-organized networks, whether natural or artificial. This is known as swarm intelligence (SI) and the term is used in artificial intelligence research.

SI systems are usually made up of a collection of simple agents that communicate with each other and their surroundings locally. Nature, particularly biological systems, is a common source of inspiration. Although there is no central control mechanism dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to some extent unpredictable, interactions between such agents result in the emergence of "intelligent" global activity that is unfamiliar to the independent actors. Ant colonies, bee colonies, bacterial development, and microbial intelligence are all examples of swarm intelligence in natural systems.