Our research group explores how intelligent collective behaviors emerge through the interaction of sensing, decision-making, and movement—both in animals and in robots. By focusing on how bodies interact with their environments and with others, we study embodied collective intelligence at multiple levels, from individual sensorimotor control to large-scale swarm coordination. Our work combines virtual reality, robotics, AI, and behavioral biology, often in tightly integrated, cross-disciplinary platforms. For more detailed information on our group and research, please also visit our external lab page.
How do fish swim together in perfect coordination? Behind this seemingly effortless behavior are individual fish constantly sensing their neighbors and adjusting their movements. Our research aims to understand these underlying sensorimotor control mechanisms that give rise to schooling behavior.
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When fish swim in groups, they not only respond to what they see but also to the flow of water around them—flow that they generate and that is affected by the movements of others. These hydrodynamic interactions are thought to play a key role in how fish coordinate within schools, but they are extremely difficult to study using traditional modeling or simulations due to the complexity of turbulent flows.
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Why do animals use certain sensorimotor control strategies instead of others? To explore this question, we’ve developed a large-scale swarm robotics platform—including aerial drones, land-based robots, and underwater robots—that allows us to test biologically inspired control systems in real-world conditions.
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