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The DiODe team has published their latest study on collective robotics in the prestigious journal Science Robotics. The study shows how information spreads in large robot populations. The research has brought to a counterintuitive finding: the less the robots were connected, the more the information spread within the population; less was more.

On the contrary, globally-connected robots were unable to discard outdated beliefs and adopt better available alternatives. This work lays the foundations for the design of large swarms of minimalistic robots that can operate hazardous and remote locations, such as nano-robots in blood vessels, or biodegradable robots for ocean cleaning.

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The DiODe team are organising a conference on collective decision-making to mark the close of the project. This will take place in Sheffield on 20–21 May and features an extensive line-up of high-profile interdisciplinary speakers.

Bose, T, Bottom, F, Reina, A and Marshall, J A R (2019) ‘Frequency-sensitivity and magnitude-sensitivity in decision-making: predictions of a theoretical model-based study’, Computational Brain & Behavior (online first).

In this paper we study how decisions can be affected by varying frequencies and magnitudes of a perceptual stimulus in a simulated binary choice task. As a result we find that reaction time distributions may resemble the periodicity of the external stimulus. The article is fully open access.

Bose, T, Reina, A, Marshall, J A R (2019) ‘Inhibition and excitation shape activity selection: effect of oscillations in a decision-making circuit’, Neural Computation 31, pp. 870–896.

This paper studies a model animal choosing between different food sources in an ongoing decision-making process. The decision-making circuit regulating the response is implemented via a generic neural hardware motif. Nonlinearities in the circuit influence the behaviour of the model animal.

We find the unexpected result that inherent oscillations of neuronal activity may enhance decision-making performance.

The DiODe team are finalists for the inaugural Research Software Engineering Prize at the University of Sheffield, for their software MuMoT: Multiscale Modelling Tool. Try the tool out for free online.