Bacterium Robot Society-A biologically inspired multi-agent concept for internal monitoring and controlling of processes

Societies are formed as collaborative structures to execute tasks that are not possible or are difficult for individuals alone. There are many types of biological societies formed by animals, but societies formed by machines or robots are still rare. This paper introduces the concept of an application oriented robot society formed by autonomous underwater robots. The Bacterium Robot Society is a generic concept with many potential applications. As an example of such application a scenario, where robot society serves as a mobile distributed sensor instrument inside a process plant, is presented.