In this episode I interview Professor Sabine Hauert about the super interesting work she does on the control of swarm robots, how considering nanoparticles as swarms can be used to treat cancer, and how morphogenesis can generate structure from random interactions.

You can follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/coffee_and_control_podcast/),BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/coffee-and-control.bsky.social) and X(https://x.com/coffee_ctrl_pod)for updates on episodes!

You can also connect with or follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-hodgins-733a30175/

References

Sabine: https://hauertlab.com/

Podcasts/ TEDx talks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn1gmcs-HXU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBbYuzhxpE0

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vvknnV6325Q

Robot Talk: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JWPnKQmwTQdM1K7247jkq

Complexity: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6nfcUpB3wesHqXP5XzSPAl

Engenius: https://open.spotify.com/episode/34jert4EQGBVrQBfS4OfxW

Research

Invertebrate inspiration review paper: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/acc223/meta

Centipede control inspiration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0171421

David Garzon-Ramos: https://dgarzonramos.com/

Puzzle/ Problem/mess paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22478

Dario Floriano: https://people.epfl.ch/dario.floreano?lang=en

Manuela Veloso: https://engineering.cmu.edu/directory/bios/veloso-manuela.html

PhD

PhD thesis: https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/dbb9fe40-930c-4e54-a5c0-10b62ebb6d1c
Robot swarm video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_qRuHkD5lc

Onboard evolution of swarm behaviours: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aisy.201900031

Supervisory control papers: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/229980063/Paper_SWARM2019.pdf

MAP-elites algorithm: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-77538-8_49

Morphogenesis

James Sharpe: https://www.embl.org/people/person/james-sharpe/

Original paper: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/scirobotics.aau9178

Controllability of morphogenesis: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/toward-controllable-morphogenesis-in-large-robot-swarms

Controllability in control theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controllability

Steve Brunton controllability Gramian video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNHx62HbKNA

Alan Turing reaction diffusion paper: https://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf

Nanoswarms

Sangita Bhatia: https://ki.mit.edu/people/faculty/sangeeta-bhatia

Nanoswarm papers: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4295824/

John Ives: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Jonathan-Ives-fa38de81-8d34-4978-a99d-1f55efe2e0f4/

Matimba Swana: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/matimba-c-swana

Outreach

AIhub.org: https://aihub.org/

Robohub.org: https://robohub.org/

Drones for 3D printing buildings: https://robohub.org/five-ways-drones-will-change-the-way-buildings-are-designed/

AI environmental impact: https://aihub.org/2025/02/06/explained-generative-ais-environmental-impact/

AI for drug development: https://aihub.org/2025/01/09/will-ai-revolutionize-drug-development-researchers-explain-why-it-depends-on-how-its-used/

Extra questions

Radhika Nagpal: https://www.radhikanagpal.org/

Dot robots: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.13809

In this episode I talk to Dr Zehor Belkhatir about her fascinating work using fractional order systems to model the brain, as well as how control can be used for chemotherapy treatment.

You can follow us on Instagram, BlueSky, and X for updates on episodes!

References

1. Thesis: Dr. Zehor Belkhatir's thesis explores key aspects of fractional systems in biomedical applications.
2. Fractional order estimation: ScienceDirect article.
3. Cardiovascular system ECC paper: IEEE Explore paper.
4. Hybrid dynamical systems: Springer chapter.
5. Kevin Aquino: Google Scholar profile.
6. Fractional differential equations textbook: Mathematics in Science and Engineering.
7. Fractional calculus in biomedical engineering book: Begell House publication.
8. Fractional Robust Control Design book: Springer book.
9. Fractional order Matlab toolbox: MathWorks resource.
10. Fractional Youla-Kucera parameterisation: (Details forthcoming).
11. Allen Tannenbaum: Profile.
12. Jeff Shamma: Profile.
13. Larry Norton: MSKCC Profile.
14. Cancer modelling (and MPC) paper: Google Scholar citation.
15. Impulse response cancer control: Google Scholar citation.
16. Optimal mass transport paper: bioRxiv abstract.