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Simplifying Complexity

How do fireflies synchronise?

Aug 21, 2023
Orit Peleg, an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, talks about the synchronization of fireflies. She explains the process of studying firefly swarms, how even a small amount of coupling can lead to synchronization, and the potential applications in programming synchronized behaviors in swarms of robots.
25:56

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Fireflies synchronize their flashing through interactions in a complex system, which can be applied to programming swarm robots.
  • Studying fireflies in national parks using cameras helps understand emergent periodicity in collective firefly behavior.

Deep dives

Fireflies and Synchronization

Fireflies have the ability to synchronize their flashing in the night sky, even over significant areas. This synchronization is achieved through the interactions of individual fireflies in a complex system. Understanding this mechanism can have implications for programming swarm robots to work together.

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