Unlocking nature’s secrets: Swarm intelligence for the optimization of production processes and other cyber-physical systems

Abstract: Swarm intelligence is the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems, inspired by natural phenomena like bee hives and ant colonies. This approach demonstrates that numerous small entities can collaboratively solve complex problems more effectively than a single large entity. The talk will explore the fundamental principles of swarm intelligence and bottom-up system design. Melanie Schranz from Lakeside Labs, Austria, will present their current research focusing on agent-based modeling and swarm-inspired algorithms. This bottom-up approach leverages the benefits of nature-inspired swarms, including robustness, adaptivity, and scalability. Their work aims to develop local, highly reactive rules for solving complex problems, like we have in production process optimization, but also in the edge-fog-cloud continuum.