Introduction to the 2nd International Workshop on Adaptive Robotic Ecologies, ARE’13

Robotic ecologies are an emerging paradigm, which crosses the border between the fields of robotics, sensor networks, and ambient intelligence (AmI). Central to the robotic ecology concept is that complex tasks are not performed by a single, very capable robot (eg a humanoid robot butler), instead they are performed through the collaboration and cooperation of many networked devices performing several steps in a coordinated and goal oriented fashion while also exchanging sensor data and other useful information in the process. Such an approach extends the type of application that can be considered, reduces their complexity, and enhances the individual values of the devices involved by enabling new services that cannot be performed by any device by itself.While these potentials make robotic ecologies increasingly popular, many fundamental research questions remain open. One such question is how to …