中文摘要：

从计算机科学的角度对群机器人进行综述。概括其历史背景和目前的研究工作，回顾和展望其应用领域．群机器人是受社会性昆虫群体行为启发产生的新方法。通过建立经济、鲁棒、柔性和规模可伸缩的多机器人系统，协调控制相对简单的个体机器人合作完成规定的复杂任务．围绕群机器人的定义、与其他多机器人系统的区分准则及系统级功能特征，讨论群机器人研究中的主要问题：个体交互、通信、协作控制和自组织、自组装等，明确其研究概貌．

英文摘要：

The field of swarm robotics is surveyed from a computer-science perspective. Both the historical basis and the current research of the field are summarized. Swarm robotics is a novel discipline and approach which is inspired by social insects. By this approach, large numbers of relatively simple robots can be controlled to deal with prescribed complex tasks in an economical, robust, flexible and scalable fashion. In this paper, the key definitions of this newly emerging method are introduced and a set of criteria is presented which can be used to distinguish swarm robotics research from other multi-robot studies. Then, the desirable properties of swarm robotics in the system-level function are deseribed. Finally, central issues of swarm robotics are discussed including interaction between individual robots, communication, cooperation and control, self-organizing and self-assembling etc.