These glow-in-the-dark robots can hardly be described as intelligent. Called 'Lumibots', they move around by observing two basic rules: 'follow the light' and 'turn after a collision'. Yet, despite this simple behaviour, they manage to follow complex paths that are recorded artistically as their tail lights pass over photoluminescent paper.

The installation was devised by artist Mey Lean Kronemann as a way to demonstrate the concept of emergence: the way complicated systems can arise from simple interactions. Her work is inspired by pheromone paths that ants use to navigate. Army ants, for example, rely on two chemicals to follow a route taken by their colony mates.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/01/ant-like-robots-create-co...