Andreagiovanni Reina, Research Group Leader —
GIO Lab —
Group Intelligence and self-Organisation
Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, Universität Konstanz & Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany
A well-organised group can achieve more than a collection of independent individuals.
We study the rules that individuals should follow to achieve effective collective behaviour. A well-coordinated system is efficient, robust, adaptive, and scalable. But what are the individual rules and social mechanisms used by group-living animals? Can these principles be applied to design coordination algorithms for large-scale robotic system? Are there universal coordination mechanisms that underlie seemingly different systems—such as animal groups, insect colonies, and neurons?
These are some of the key research questions explored by the Group Intelligence & self-Organisation (GIO) Lab.
WHAT WE DO
We use mathematical and computational models to study group intelligence, focusing on how mobile agents exchange, process, and utilize information to achieve self-organised coordination. These decentralised systems can be observed in nature, from insect colonies to neurons. By understanding the self-organisation mechanisms of such systems, we aim to engineer large-scale distributed robotic systems, such as robot swarms and mobile sensor networks, leveraging principles of self-organisation for efficient, resilient, and scalable coordination.The highly interdisciplinary nature of the research we do at the Group Intelligence & self-Organisation (GIO) Lab requires integrating a diverse range of analytical techniques, including statistical physics, network science, computer science, multi-agent simulations, animal behaviour, cognitive neuroscience, and robotics.
To tackle these challenges, we engage in extensive and fun collaborations across multiple disciplines, such as theoretical biology, physics, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and computer science. And since we also have a passion for robotics, we frequently validate our findings through large-scale swarm robotics experiments, moving one step closer to the deployment of our research into the real world.
All this exciting work is made possible by the fantastic research environment at the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at Universität Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Our fabulous GIO Lab Team thrives thanks to the exceptional CASCB colleagues, whose groundbreaking research in collective behaviour spans across diverse systems and scales. For a glimpse into this extraordinary research, watch this video: https://youtu.be/S0MkSuBK0iI.
9-11 October 2024 ANTS 2024
I am co-organising the 14th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS). It will be held in Konstanz, Germany, on 9-11 October 2024. It would be fantastic to meet you here. Submit your paper by the deadline, April 7th!
December 1, 2023 New position!
Fantastic news! I move to Germany to join the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz & Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour. I will be a new research group leader as part of a fabulous community! Looking forward to this new adventure!!
August 10, 2023 New article
In our latest article, we show that "Cross-inhibition leads to group consensus despite the presence of strongly opinionated minorities and asocial behaviour" by Andreagiovanni Reina, Raina Zakir, Giulia De Masi, and Eliseo Ferrante; has been accepted for publication in Communications Physics, a journal of the Nature Portfolio. I like this study very much; please have a look at the video.
31 July - 12 August 2023 Invited lecture
Honoured to have been invited as a speaker at the 2023 Konstanz School of Collective Behaviour held in Konstanz (31 July - 12 August 2023). I will be speaking about "Discovering the marvels of collective decision making". Hope to see you in Konstanz!