{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,27]],"date-time":"2026-04-27T10:40:27Z","timestamp":1777286427098,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,23]],"date-time":"2020-12-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1608681600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Robot. AI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Stigmergy is a form of indirect communication and coordination in which agents modify the environment to pass information to their peers. In nature, animals use stigmergy by, for example, releasing pheromone that conveys information to other members of their species. A few systems in swarm robotics research have replicated this process by introducing the concept of artificial pheromone. In this paper, we present<jats:monospace>Phormica<\/jats:monospace>, a system to conduct experiments in swarm robotics that enables a swarm of e-puck robots to release and detect artificial pheromone.<jats:monospace>Phormica<\/jats:monospace>emulates pheromone-based stigmergy thanks to the ability of robots to project UV light on the ground, which has been previously covered with a photochromic material. As a proof of concept, we test<jats:monospace>Phormica<\/jats:monospace>on three collective missions in which robots act collectively guided by the artificial pheromone they release and detect. Experimental results indicate that a robot swarm can effectively self-organize and act collectively by using stigmergic coordination based on the artificial pheromone provided by<jats:monospace>Phormica<\/jats:monospace>.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2020.591402","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,23]],"date-time":"2020-12-23T06:10:18Z","timestamp":1608703818000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Phormica: Photochromic Pheromone Release and Detection System for Stigmergic Coordination in Robot Swarms"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Muhammad","family":"Salman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Garz\u00f3n Ramos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ken","family":"Hasselmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mauro","family":"Birattari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","first-page":"4233","article-title":"\u201cUrban Swarms: A new approach for autonomous waste management,\u201d","volume-title":"IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation-ICRA","author":"Alfeo","year":"2019"},{"key":"B2","first-page":"158","article-title":"\u201cSRoCS: Leveraging stigmergy on a multi-robot construction platform for unknown environments,\u201d","volume-title":"Swarm Intelligence-ANTS, Vol. 8667 of LNCS","author":"Allwright","year":"2014"},{"key":"B3","first-page":"3809","article-title":"\u201cKilogrid: A modular virtualization environment for the Kilobot robot,\u201d","volume-title":"IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems-IROS","author":"Antoun","year":"2016"},{"key":"B4","first-page":"407","article-title":"\u201cCOS\u03a6: Artificial pheromone system for robotic swarms research,\u201d","volume-title":"IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems-IROS","author":"Arvin","year":"2015"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"339","DOI":"10.1007\/s00422-010-0402-x","article-title":"Artificial pheromone for path selection by a foraging swarm of robots","volume":"103","author":"Campo","year":"2010","journal-title":"Biol. 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