OSU explores new models for swarm coordination inspired by honeybees
Monday, November 2, 2026
Media Contact: Desa James | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-2669 | desa.james@okstate.edu
Key Facts
- Dr. Imraan A. Faruque is leading the AS A BEE project to study how large groups coordinate when communication, sensing and computing resources are limited.
- The project uses honeybees to investigate how decentralized groups maintain coordination under risk, uncertainty and changing group conditions.
- Researchers are developing methods to identify and measure emergence, where coordinated behavior arises from interactions among individuals rather than centralized control.
- Findings from biological and engineered systems, including robotic swarms and neural networks, could inform future autonomous vehicles, sensing networks and communication-constrained technologies.
Dr. Imraan A. Faruque, associate professor in the Oklahoma State University School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, leads a project to better understand how large groups can coordinate effectively when communication, sensing and computing resources are limited.
The project, titled Beyond Flocking and Schooling: Alternative Swarming Architectures in Biological and Engineered Emergence (AS A BEE), combines theory, biological experiments and analyses of modern technological systems to identify new ways decentralized groups can work together. The research is designed to address challenges faced by autonomous systems operating in environments where GPS and radio-frequency communications may be unavailable.
A central project goal is to develop rigorous methods for identifying and measuring emergence, a phenomenon in which coordinated group behavior arises from interactions among individuals rather than from centralized control. Researchers work to create practical tests that can detect emerging coordination from noisy real-world data and apply those methods across a variety of systems.
The team will use honeybees as a model for studying how groups coordinate under constraints. Building on previous experiments that identified decision-making and feedback mechanisms underlying insect group flight, Faruque will investigate how bees respond to changing levels of risk and uncertainty.
Experiments will examine how bees react to different types of neighbors, how colonies balance individual and group objectives, and how performance changes when some members are lost or become unreliable. The work is expected to improve understanding of how biological systems maintain coordination despite limited communication.
Faruque will also apply the emergence-detection framework to a range of engineered systems, including robotic swarms, cellular automata and large neural networks. By studying both natural and engineered examples, the hope is to identify broader principles that explain coordinated behavior across many different types of decentralized systems.
According to Faruque, current approaches to swarming and coordination often emphasize consensus, but many successful systems achieve coordination without requiring all participants to behave identically. The project seeks to expand the range of coordination architectures available to researchers and engineers.
Potential applications include autonomous vehicles, distributed sensing networks and systems that must operate in communication-constrained environments. The research could also contribute to tools for recognizing coordinated activity among multiple objects in real time.
The project supports ongoing efforts to better understand emergence in both biological and technological systems while providing new foundations for future autonomous technologies.
FAQ
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Why are honeybees being used in the OSU research?
Honeybees provide a model for understanding how groups coordinate under constraints. The research investigates how bees respond to risk and uncertainty, interact with different neighbors, balance individual and group objectives, and maintain performance when some members are lost or unreliable.
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What is emergence, and how does the OSU project study it?
Emergence is a phenomenon in which coordinated group behavior arises from interactions among individuals rather than centralized control. The OSU research team is developing methods to detect and measure emergence in noisy real-world data and apply those methods across biological and engineered systems.
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What technologies could benefit from the AS A BEE project?
Potential applications include autonomous vehicles, robotic swarms, distributed sensing networks and other systems that must operate with limited communications. The research also aims to improve tools for identifying coordinated activity among multiple objects in real time.