Swarm Robotics as a Test Bed for the Study of Language Emergence

About the Workshop

Swarm robotics, inspired by the collective intelligence of social insects, offers a physically grounded platform for studying how language and communication can emerge from decentralized interactions. Unlike abstract or disembodied simulations, swarm robotics lets you design, test, and observe dynamic behaviors in a real-world-inspired environment, where robots must coordinate to solve tasks like foraging or navigation.

In this workshop, after a brief introduction to swarm dynamics and the ARGoS simulator, you’ll dive into a live coding demo where the organizer will code a simple swarm behavior about language emergence, guided by the suggestions of the participants.

Then, it’s your turn: In groups or solo, you will have access to a pre-prepared simulation environment (with documentation and starter code) to create your own robotic behaviors and test your experimental setups.

To make the most of the workshop, please pre-install ARGoS on your machine with this tutorial (compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows) and review our optional starter tutorial. If you have any trouble with installations, please contact us. If you don't have an available machine, we can team you up with another person who has one.

All workshop materials (slides, simulated environments, code, and participant insights) will be available on a dedicated GitHub repository, so you can continue exploring after the session.

Example of an experience run in Argos

Group of robots spread over three nests, playing a minimal language game. Here, robots with different vocabularies are represented in different colors. Overt time, robots converge on a shared language.

Draft Schedule

1h	Introductory Talk - Swarm Linguistics & ARGoS Foundations and key accomplishments of swarm robotics. Autonomous coordination and communication inspired from social insects. Relevance of swarm systems to modeling language emergence. First results and insights from recent work.
1h 30min	Live coding demonstration Live coding demonstration by the organizer, exploring simple hypotheses about language emergence in swarm systems, with real-time graphical output and discussion. In this, participants can propose simple modifications, which the organizer will implement live to test their impact on the global dynamic
1h	Hands-on Session Interactive exploration where participants, in groups or alone, modify and test code on their own laptops, supported by the organizers.
30min	Wrap-Up Summary of insights from the workshop & potential next steps for the participants.

Materials

Bellow are optionals papers and tutorials you can read and explore before the workshop.

Only the instalation of ARGoS is required if you plan to use your own machine.

Language evolution in swarm robotics: A perspective. Cambier, N., Miletitch, R., Frémont, V., Dorigo, M., Ferrante, E., & Trianni, V. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 7, 12. (2020).
Task-driven language evolution with swarm robotics Cambier, N., Miletitch, R., The Oxford Handbook of Approaches to Language Evolution, Oxford Handbooks (2025).
Instalation tutorial for ARGoS (Linux, Mac, Windows). Required if you plan to use your own laptop. Contact us if you run into trouble.
Tutorial on ARGoS and Lua. Updated version coming in november.