Ants, buses and robots-self-organization of transportation systems

This article explores the potential for applying ideas in collective intelligence to transportation systems. A number of biological, human and robot models are discussed. First, we examine the ability of insect societies to form transportation networks by simple positive feedback. Second, we show how the undesirable aggregation tendencies in buses can be solved by self-organization. Finally, we consider a team of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) based on a decentralized supply and demand mechanism. These three examples offer some insights into what self-organization can offer transportation systems, in terms of task allocation, division of labour, etc.