Scientists Research Ants for Collective Intelligence

In the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory at the University of the West of England, Dr Chris Melhuish presides over a fleet of "U-bots".
A U-bot is a foot-high robot which glides around an arena on castors, carrying a U-shaped scoop in front of it. It is a very stupid robot, because it carries only three instructions:

• If nothing is happening, keep moving.
• If you hit a large obstacle, take a turn and keep moving.
• If you've got a little something in your scoop, and you hit another little something, drop what you've got, take a turn and keep moving.

Following only those instructions, Dr Melhuish's robots, given enough time, can gather together a randomly distributed collection of frisbees and assemble them in a pile in the centre of their arena.