hivebots
“…complexity, correctly viewed, is only a mask for simplicity”
- Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial
Hivebots is a group activity that introduces the concept of emergence through playing.
Inspired by Bonabeau, Dorigo and Theraulaz’s Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems, and initiated by Michael Weller, the activity tells a story about complex behavior that emerges from simple rules.
ACTIVITY
Co-developed with Carnegie Science Center, the workshop starts with a story of how wasps build their nest by following a small set of simple rules.
To demonstrate that, we brought in inter-connecting cardboard boxes of two colors.
A set of cards illustrate the rules for putting the boxes together. Each participant would receive one card; when the structure on the card is found, a box of a particular color is added by the card holder.
Over time, the boxes would grow into a human scale structure, and a pattern would emerge.
The workshop concludes with how the concept of emergent behavior can apply to modular robots.
rule sets
We’re sharing a set of rule cards for you to try this at home!
It comes with different colors to match your toys, and is complete with crop mark!