No doubt, Hollywood writers will be busy sharpening their pencils to pen the next action blockbuster where millions of ant-like robots put the future of humanity in peril only to be saved at the last moment by a wise-cracking Bruce Willis in a white vest. Anyway, back to reality, tiny robots could be used in their millions to exhibit a form of social intelligence. 

The project, backed by a wad of cash from the EU, at the University of West England is developing hardware and software to make small robots that work to together. Called the Symbrion Project (there's the movie title), its based on insects that exhibit a form of intelligence when there are thousands of the little blighters.

According to Alan Winfield, a roboticist at the University, "Software bugs are emergent properties - but today we think they're bad and must be fixed. We need to know how to design the kind of emergent 'bugs' that produce swarm intelligence in nature," he told New Scientist.

These swarm of socially intelligent bugs could be assembled into virtual doubles of people (so we could remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Up until now the bugs have been carefully controlled in order to predict the behaviour of these groupings. He hoped by letting the bugs do there own thing we will all find out just what they are capable of.

Cue trailer voiceover man with throaty American accent.

More here.