L. Feola, A. Reina, M. S. Talamali, V. Trianni. Multi-Swarm Interaction through Augmented Reality for Kilobots. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 8(11), 2023.

Research with swarm robotics systems can be complicated, time-consuming, and often expensive in terms of space and resources. The situation is even worse for studies involving multiple, possibly heterogeneous robot swarms. Augmented reality can provide an interesting solution to these problems, as demonstrated by the ARK system (Augmented Reality for Kilobots), which enhanced the experimentation possibilities with Kilobots, also relieving researchers from demanding tracking and logging activities. However, ARK is limited in mostly enabling experimentation with a single swarm. In this paper, we introduce M-ARK, a system to support studies on multi-swarm interaction. M-ARK is based on the synchronisation over a network connection of multiple ARK systems, whether real or simulated, serving a twofold purpose: (i) to study the interaction of multiple, possibly heterogeneous swarms, and (ii) to enable a gradual transition from simulation to reality. Moreover, M-ARK enables the interaction between swarms dislocated across multiple labs worldwide, encouraging scientific collaboration and advancement in multi-swarm interaction studies.

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George F. R. Ellis

Entropy 2023, 25(9), 1301

This paper considers how a classification of causal effects as comprising efficient, formal, material, and final causation can provide a useful understanding of how emergence takes place in biology and technology, with formal, material, and final causation all including cases of downward causation; they each occur in both synchronic and diachronic forms. Taken together, they underlie why all emergent levels in the hierarchy of emergence have causal powers (which is Noble’s principle of biological relativity) and so why causal closure only occurs when the upwards and downwards interactions between all emergent levels are taken into account, contra to claims that some underlying physics level is by itself causality complete. A key feature is that stochasticity at the molecular level plays an important role in enabling agency to emerge, underlying the possibility of final causation occurring in these contexts.

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Cate Heine, Kevin P. O’Keeffe, Paolo Santi, Li Yan & Carlo Ratti
Scientific Reports volume 13, Article number: 14064 (2023)

Human mobility is a key driver of infectious disease spread. Recent literature has uncovered a clear pattern underlying the complexity of human mobility in cities: 𝑟⋅𝑓, the product of distance traveled r and frequency of return f per user to a given location, is invariant across space. This paper asks whether the invariant 𝑟⋅𝑓 also serves as a driver for epidemic spread, so that the risk associated with human movement can be modeled by a unifying variable 𝑟⋅𝑓. We use two large-scale datasets of individual human mobility to show that there is in fact a simple relation between r and f and both speed and spatial dispersion of disease spread. This discovery could assist in modeling spread of disease and inform travel policies in future epidemics—based not only on travel distance r but also on frequency of return f.

Read the full article at: www.nature.com

Bálint Hartmann, István Papp, Kristóf Benedek, Shengfeng Deng, Géza Ódor, Jeffrey Kelling

While weak, tuned asymmetry can improve, strong heterogeneity destroys synchronization in the electric power system. We study the level of heterogeneity, by comparing large high voltage (HV) power-grids of Europe and North America. We provide an analysis of power capacities and loads of various energy sources from the databases and found heavy tailed distributions with similar characteristics. Graph topological measures, community structures also exhibit strong similarities, while the cable admittance distributions can be well fitted with the same power-laws (PL), related to the length distributions. The community detection analysis shows the level of synchronization in different domains of the European HV power grids, by solving a set of swing equations. We provide numerical evidence for frustrated synchronization and Chimera states and point out the relation of topology and level of synchronization in the subsystems. We also provide empirical data analysis of the frequency heterogeneities within the Hungarian HV network and find q-Gaussian distributions related to super-statistics of time-lagged fluctuations, which agree well with former results on the Nordic Grid.

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Kirsty Y. Wan

Animal Cognition

Living organisms routinely navigate their surroundings in search of better conditions, more food, or to avoid predators. Typically, animals do so by integrating sensory cues from the environment with their locomotor apparatuses. For single cells or small organisms that possess motility, fundamental physical constraints imposed by their small size have led to alternative navigation strategies that are specific to the microscopic world. Intriguingly, underlying these myriad exploratory behaviours or sensory functions is the onset of periodic activity at multiple scales, such as the undulations of cilia and flagella, the vibrations of hair cells, or the oscillatory shape modes of migrating neutrophils. Here, I explore oscillatory dynamics in basal microeukaryotes and hypothesize that these active oscillations play a critical role in enhancing the fidelity of adaptive sensorimotor integration.

Read the full article at: link.springer.com