From June 8-10, 2026, the International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS) took place for the 15th time, for the first time in Germany in Darmstadt. ANTS brings together researchers from around the world working on swarm intelligence, a growing interdisciplinary field of research that examines self-organizing processes in both natural and artificial systems. Under the motto “reaching beyond – swarm intelligence across systems, disciplines, and communities,” researchers from fields ranging from ethnology to statistical physics presented models to explain collective phenomena. Algorithms and methods inspired by swarms contribute to solving various complex problems in environmental sustainability, food security, health, and global conflicts.

emergenCITY PI Roderich Groß, head of the Resilient Cyber-Physical Systems Lab at TU Darmstadt, was the General Chair of the conference. As a Platinum Sponsor, emergenCITY provided financial and organizational support for the conference. At its own exhibition booth, emergenCITY presented the rescue robot scout, developed by the Simulation, System Optimization, and Robotics (SIM) group led by emergenCITY-PI Oskar von Stryk, as well as the Heinerbox to an international expert audience, offering a tangible glimpse into the center’s ongoing research.

The scientific program featured several accepted contributions co-authored by Roderich Groß. The paper “Warmth and competence in the swarm: Designing effective human-robot teams” (Miyauchi, Groß, Chen) examined how social dimensions influence collaboration in human-robot swarm teams. The paper “Cooperative energy-replenishment in robot swarms” (Rau, Talamali, Miyauchi et al.) also featured additional emergenCITY members as co-authors.