Hacking the Colony

Today, Ashay Aswale and Tony Lopez shared their work on swarm robotics and what they have learned from ants. Robotic swarms must solve the same problems that eusocial insects do. What if your pheromone trail goes cold? What if you’re getting bad information from a bad-actor within the swarm? Answering these questions can help tackle serious robotic challenges. For example, a swarm of robots can lose a few members to accidents and malfunctions, but a large robot cannot. Additionally, a swarm could be host to many castes like an ant colony. Specialization with redundancy built in seems like a win-win! Tune in and hear more about this fascinating topic.

Guests

Ashay Aswale: Ashay Aswale is a Ph.D. candidate in robotics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, working with Professor Carlo Pinciroli. His current research focuses on multi-robot task allocation for heterogeneous robots with specific skills. Ashay has research experience in humanoid robotics; his master's research focused on the teleoperation of Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot via whole-body imitation. He maintains the open-source repository Transportable Opensource UI for Generic Humanoids (TOUGH) and managed WPI's entry into NASA’s Space Robotics Challenge Phase II. Ashay was the recipient of the best paper award at AAMAS (2022).

Tony Lopez: Antonio J. López serves as an Adjunct Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology since June 2019 and is currently a PhD student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. With extensive experience as a Freelance Hardware Engineer and Software Developer since May 2009, Antonio has held various roles, including Senior Competitive Intelligence Analyst at Philips Lighting, where insights from competitor operations informed management strategies. Previous positions include Marketing Consultant at Hispanic Research Inc., Supervisor of Mobile Computing at Babson College, and Customer Solutions Consultant at Paytronix Systems. Antonio holds an MBA from Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Babson College, along with ongoing studies towards a Master of Engineering in Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.