Publications

S. Mahdavi Nasab, D. Singh, P. Klapwijk, G Jetti, M Khayyat, F. Braghin, E. Ferrante (2026). Energy-Efficient Flocking in Self-Organized Robot Swarms. The 15th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2026).

A. Yihunie, L Schwarzenbach, H Salam, E. Ferrante (2026). Environmental Perception in a Swarm of Conversational Agents. The 15th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2026).

A. Yihunie, L. Schwarzenbach, H. Salam, E. Ferrante (2026). Environmental Perception in a Swarm of Conversational Agents. Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2026).

K.A. Busico, L. Schwarzenbach, F. Abu-Dakka, E. Ferrante (2026). Escaping the Trap: Benchmarking Swarm Gradient-following in Geometrically Constrained Environments. The 15th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2026).

J. Horyna, R. Jung, S. Weiss, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2025). Swarming Without an Anchor (SWA): Robot Swarms Adapt Better to Localization Dropouts Then a Single Robot. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

A. AlKatheeri, A. Barciś, E. Ferrante (2025). Distributed Loitering Synchronization with Fixed-Wing UAVs. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

E. Traversi, M. Barcis, L. Bellone, A. Barcis, D. Ahmim-Bonaldi, E. Ferrante, E. Natalizio (2025). Formation Analysis for a Fleet of Drones: A Mathematical Framework. International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence.

T. Amorim, T. Nascimento, A. Chaudhary, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2024). A Minimalistic 3D Self-Organized UAV Flocking Approach for Desert Exploration. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems.

F. van Diggelen, N. Cambier, E. Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2024). A model-free method to learn multiple skills in parallel on modular robots. Nature Communications.

F. van Diggelen, E. Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2024). Comparing Robot Controller Optimization Methods on Evolvable Morphologies. Evolutionary Computation.

J. Horyna, V. Krátkỳ, V. Pritzl, T. Báča, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2024). Fast Swarming of UAVs in GNSS-Denied Feature-Poor Environments Without Explicit Communication. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

A. Garcia Rincon, T. Karagüzel, F. van Diggelen, E. Ferrante (2024). Collective Random Walks of Flocking Agents Through Emergent Implicit Leadership. The 14th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2024).

F. van Diggelen, M. De Carlo, N. Cambier, E. Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2024). Emergence of Specialised Collective Behaviors in Evolving Heterogeneous Swarms. The 18th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving from Nature.

H. Gupta, V Strobel, A Pacheco, E. Ferrante, E. Natalizio, M. Dorigo (2024). Group-level Behavioral Switch in a Robot Swarm Using Blockchain. The 14th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2024).

T. Karagüzel, F. van Diggelen, A. Garcia Rincon, E. Ferrante (2024). Self-Organized Flocking in Three Dimensions. The 14th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2024).

A. Reina, R. Zakir, G. De Masi, E. Ferrante (2023). Cross-inhibition leads to group consensus despite the presence of strongly opinionated minorities and asocial behaviour. Communications Physics.

T. Karagüzel, V. Retamal, N. Cambier, E. Ferrante (2023). From shadows to light: A swarm robotics approach with onboard control for seeking dynamic sources in constrained environments. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

M. De Carlo, E. Ferrante, D. Zeeuwe, J. Ellers, A.E. Eiben (2023). Heritability of morphological and behavioural traits in evolving robots. Evolutionary Intelligence.

N. Cambier, A. E. Eiben, E. Ferrante (2023). Emergent Naming System in an Unstructured Environment: a Shortest-Path Discovery Case Study. ALIFE 2023: Ghost in the Machine: Proceedings of the 2023 Artificial Life Conference.

N. Cambier, E. Ferrante (2023). Fast Collective Decision-Making without Prior Knowledge. Proceedings of the Companion Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation.

M. De Carlo, E. Ferrante, J. Ellers, G. Meynen, A. E. Eiben (2023). Interacting Robots in an Artificial Evolutionary Ecosystem. Genetic Programming.

M. Pourjabar, A. Al Katheeri, M. Rusci, A. Barcis, V. Niculescu, E. Ferrante, D. Palossi, L. Benini (2023). Land & Localize: An Infrastructure-free and Scalable Nano-Drones Swarm with UWB-based Localization. 2023 19th International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS).

T. A. Karagüzel, V. G. Retamal, E. Ferrante (2023). Onboard Controller Design for Nano UAV Swarm in Operator-Guided Collective Behaviors. 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

N. Cambier, E. Ferrante (2023). Situated and Fast Collective Decision-Making among Many Alternatives. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2023).

T. Manoni, D. Albani, J. Horyna, P. Petracek, M. Saska, E. Ferrante (2022). Adaptive arbitration of aerial swarm interactions through a Gaussian kernel for coherent group motion. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

T. Karagüzel, A. E. Turgut, A.E. Eiben, E. Ferrante (2022). Collective Gradient Perception with a Flying Robot Swarm. Swarm Intelligence.

J. Horyna, T. Baca, V. Walter, D. Albani, D. Hert, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2022). Decentralized swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles for search and rescue operations without explicit communication. Autonomous Robots.

C. Zito, E. Ferrante (2022). One-shot Learning for Autonomous Aerial Manipulation. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

N. Cambier, E. Ferrante (2022). AutoMoDe-pomodoro: an evolutionary class of modular designs. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2022).

T. Alperen Karagüzel, N. Cambier, A.E. Eiben, E. Ferrante (2022). Collective Gradient Following with Sensory Heterogeneous UAV Swarm. The 16th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 2022 (DARS).

C. De Souza Junior, T. Manoni, E. Ferrante (2022). Constant Bearing Flocking. The 13th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2022).

J. Horyna, ́ V. Krátk\, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2022). Decentralized multi-robot velocity estimation for UAVs enhancing onboard camera-based velocity measurements. 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

D. Albani, T. Manoni, M. Saska, E. and Ferrante (2022). Distributed Three Dimensional Flocking of Autonomous Drones. 2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

F. van Diggelen, J. Luo, T. A. Karagüzel, N. Cambier, E. Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2022). Environment induced emergence of collective behavior in evolving swarms with limited sensing. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2022).

A. Barciś, ́ M. Barci\, E. Natalizio, E. Ferrante (2022). Self-organized Chain Formation of Nano-drones in an Open Space. The 13th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2022).

A. Reina, E. Ferrante, G. Valentini (2021). Collective decision-making in living and artificial systems. Swarm Intelligence.

N. Cambier, D. Albani, V. Frémont, V. Trianni, E. Ferrante (2021). Cultural evolution of probabilistic aggregation in synthetic swarms. Applied Soft Computing.

G. De Masi, Prasetyo J., R. Zakir, N. Mankovskii, E. Ferrante, E. Tuci (2021). Robot swarm democracy: the importance of informed individuals against zealots. Swarm Intelligence.

F. van Diggelen, E. Ferrante, N. Harrak, J. Luo, D. Zeeuwe, A.E. Eiben (2021). The Influence of Robot Traits and Evolutionary Dynamics on the Reality Gap. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems.

J. Prasetyo, G. De Masi, R. Zakir, M. Alkilabi, E. Tuci, E. Ferrante (2021). A bio-inspired spatial defence strategy for collective decision making in self-organized swarms. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference.

F. van Diggelen, E Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2021). Comparing lifetime learning methods for morphologically evolving robots. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion.

T. Amorim, T. Nascimento, P. Petracek, G. De Masi, E. Ferrante, M. Saska (2021). Self-Organized UAV Flocking Based on Proximal Control. 2021 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

M. De Carlo, E. Ferrante, J. Ellers, G. Meynen, A.E. Eiben (2021). The impact of different tasks on evolved robot morphologies. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion.

K. Miras, E. Ferrante, A. E. Eiben (2020). Environmental influences on evolvable robots. PloS one.

K. Miras, E. Ferrante, A. E. Eiben (2020). Environmental Regulation Using Plasticoding for the Evolution of Robots. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

A. E. Turgut, İ. C. Boz, \̇l. E. Okay, E. Ferrante, C. Huepe (2020). Interaction network effects on position-and velocity-based models of collective motion. Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

N. Cambier, R. Miletitch, V. Frémont, M. Dorigo, E. Ferrante, V. Trianni (2020). Language Evolution in Swarm Robotics: A Perspective. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

Z. Firat, E. Ferrante, Y. Gillet, E. Tuci (2020). On self-organised aggregation dynamics in swarms of robots with informed robots. Neural Computing and Applications.

H. Hamann, M. Schranz, W. Elmenreich, V. Trianni, C. Pinciroli, N. Bredeche, E. Ferrante (2020). Designing Self-Organization in the Physical Realm. Frontiers Media SA.

T. Alperen Karagüzel, A. E. Turgut, E. Ferrante (2020). Collective Gradient Perception in a Flocking Robot Swarm. International Conference on Swarm Intelligence.

M. De Carlo, E. Ferrante, A.E. Eiben (2020). Comparing indirect encodings by evolutionary attractor analysis in the trait space of modular robots. Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion.

Z. Firat, E. Ferrante, R. Zakir, J. Prasetyo, E. Tuci (2020). Group-Size Regulation in Self-organized Aggregation in Robot Swarms. International Conference on Swarm Intelligence.

M. De Carlo, D. Zeeuwe, E. Ferrante, G. Meynen, J. Ellers, A.E. Eiben (2020). Influences of Artificial Speciation on Morphological Robot Evolution. 2020 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI).

G. Maı̂tre, E. Tuci, E. Ferrante (2020). Opinion dissemination in a swarm of simulated robots with stubborn agents: a comparative study. 2020 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC).

G. De Masi, E. Ferrante (2020). Quality-dependent adaptation in a swarm of drones for environmental monitoring. 2020 Advances in Science and Engineering Technology International Conferences (ASET).

M. De Carlo, D. Zeeuwe, E. Ferrante, G. Meynen, J. Ellers, A.E. Eiben (2020). Robotic task affects the resulting morphology and behaviour in evolutionary robotics. 2020 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (SSCI).

J. Prasetyo, G. De Masi, E. Tuci, E. Ferrante (2020). The effect of differential quality and differential zealotry in the best-of-n problem. Proceedings of the 2020 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion.

G. De Masi, J. Prasetyo, E. Tuci, E. Ferrante (2020). Zealots Attack and the Revenge of the Commons: Quality vs Quantity in the Best-of-$n$. International Conference on Swarm Intelligence.

J. Prasetyo, G. De Masi, E. Ferrante (2019). Collective decision making in dynamic environments. Swarm Intelligence.

Y. Gillet, E. Ferrante, Z. Firat, E. Tuci (2019). Guiding aggregation dynamics in a swarm of agents via informed individuals: an analytical study. Artificial Life 2019.

N. Cambier, V. Frémont, V. Trianni, E. Ferrante (2018). Embodied Evolution of Self-Organised Aggregation by Cultural Propagation. LNCS 11172. Swarm Intelligence. 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018.

Z. Firat, E. Ferrante, N. Cambier, E. Tuci (2018). Self-organised Aggregation in Swarms of Robots with Informed Robots. Theory and Practice of Natural Computing, Seventh International Conference, TPNC 2018.

G. Primiero, E. Tuci, J. Tagliabue, E. Ferrante (2018). Swarm Attack: A self-organized model to recover from malicious communication manipulation in a swarm of simple simulated agents. LNCS 11172. Swarm Intelligence. 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018.

J. Prasetyo, G. De Masi, P. Ranjan, E. Ferrante (2018). The best-of-$n$ problem with dynamic site qualities: Achieving adaptability with stubborn individuals. LNCS 11172. Swarm Intelligence. 11th International Conference, ANTS 2018.

Y. Khaluf, E. Pieter, S. Ferrante, C. Huepe (2017). Scale Invariance in Natural and Artificial Collective Systems: a Review. Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

G. Valentini, E. Ferrante, M. Dorigo (2017). The Best-of-n Problem in Robot Swarms: Formalization, State of the Art, and Novel Perspectives. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

N. Cambier, V. Frémont, E. Ferrante (2017). Group-size Regulation in Self-Organised Aggregation through the Naming Game. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics.

N. Cambier, V. Frémont, E. Ferrante (2017). Influence of a collective behaviour on the Naming Game. Second International Workshop on Social Learning and Cultural Evolution (SlaCE).

H. Hamann, Y. Khaluf, J. Botev, M. Divband Soorati, E. Ferrante, O. Kosak, J.-M. Montanier, S. Mostaghim, R. Redpath, J. Timmis, F. Veenstra, M. Wahby, A. Zamuda (2016). Hybrid Societies: Challenges and Perspectives in the Design of Collective Behavior in Self-organizing Systems. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

R. R. S. van Lon, E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, T. Wenseleers, G. Vanden Berghe, T. Holvoet (2016). Measures of dynamism and urgency in logistics . *European Journal of Operational Research *.

G. Valentini, E. Ferrante, H. Hamann, M. Dorigo (2015). Collective decision with 100~Kilobots: speed versus accuracy in binary discrimination problems. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, E. Duéñez-Guzmán, M. Dorigo, T. Wenseleers (2015). Evolution of Self-Organized Task Specialization in Robot Swarms. PLOS Computational Biology.

A. Scheidler, A. Brutschy, E. Ferrante, M. Dorigo (2015). The k-Unanimity Rule for Self-Organized Decision Making in Swarms of Robots. IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics.

S. Van Essche, E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, R. Van Lon, T. Holvoet, T. Wenseleers (2015). Environmental factors promoting the evolution of recruitment strategies in swarms of foraging robots. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, A. Stranieri, C. Pinciroli, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2014). A Self-Adaptive Communication Strategy for Flocking in Stationary and Non-Stationary Environments. Natural Computing.

M. Brambilla, E. Ferrante, A. Prina, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2014). Robotica di sciame: una rassegna bibliografica. Sistemi intelligenti.

C. Huepe, E. Ferrante, T. Wenseleers, A. E. Turgut (2014). Scale-free correlations in flocking systems with position-based interactions. Journal of Statistical Physics.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, T. Wenseleers, C. Huepe (2014). Scale-free correlations in collective motion with position-based interactions. Artificial Life 14.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, M. Dorigo, C. Huepe (2013). Collective motion dynamics of active solids and active crystals. New Journal of Physics.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, M. Dorigo, C. Huepe (2013). Elasticity-based mechanism for the collective motion of self-propelled particles with spring-like interactions: A model system for natural and artificial swarms. Physical Review Letters.

M. Brambilla, E. Ferrante, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2013). Swarm Robotics: A Review from the Swarm Engineering Perspective. Swarm Intelligence.

M. Dorigo, D. Floreano, L. M. Gambardella, F. Mondada, S. Nolfi, T. Baaboura, M. Birattari, M. Bonani, M. Brambilla, A. Brutschy, D. Burnier, A. Campo, A. L. Christensen, A. Decugnière, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, E. Ferrante, A. Förster, J. Guzzi, V. Longchamp, S. Magnenat, J. Martinez Gonzales, N. Mathews, M. Montes de Oca, R. O'Grady, C. Pinciroli, G. Pini, P. Rétornaz, J. Roberts, V. Sperati, T. Stirling, A. Stranieri, T. Stützle, V. Trianni, E. Tuci, A. E. Turgut, F. Vaussard (2013). Swarmanoid: A novel concept for the study of heterogeneous robotic swarms. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

E. Ferrante, E. Duéñez Guzm\ń, A. E. Turgut, T. Wenseleers (2013). GESwarm: Grammatical Evolution for the Automatic Synthesis of Collective Behaviors in Swarm Robotics. Proceedings of the fifteenth international conference on Genetic and evolutionary computation conference companion.

E. Ferrante, M. Brambilla, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2013). Socially-Mediated Negotiation for Obstacle Avoidance in Collective Transport. International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotics Systems (DARS-2010).

E. Ferrante (2013). Information Transfer in a Flocking Robot Swarm.

E. Ferrante, E. Duéñez Guzm\ń, A. E. Turgut, T. Wenseleers (2013). Evolution of Task Partitioning in Swarm Robotics. Proceedings of the Workshop on Collective Behaviors and Social Dynamics of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2013).

C. Pinciroli, V. Trianni, R. O'Grady, G. i Pini, A. Brutschy, M. Brambilla, N. Mathews, E. Ferrante, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, M. Birattari, L. M. Gambardella, M. Dorigo (2012). ARGoS: a Modular, Parallel, Multi-Engine Simulator for Multi-Robot Systems. Swarm Intelligence.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, C. Huepe, A. Stranieri, C. Pinciroli, M. Dorigo (2012). Self-organized flocking with a mobile robot swarm: a novel motion control method. Adaptive Behavior.

M. A. Montes de Oca, E. Ferrante, A. Scheidler, L. F. Rossi (2012). Binary Consensus via Exponential Smoothing. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Complex Sciences: Theory and Applications (COMPLEX 2012).

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, C. Huepe, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo., T. Wenseleers (2012). Explicit and Implicit Directional Information Transfer in Collective Motion. Artificial Life 13.

A. Brutschy, A. Scheidler, E. Ferrante, M. Dorigo, M. Birattari (2012). \"Can ants inspire robots?\" Self-organized decision making in robotic swarms. Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on.

E. Ferrante, S. Wenjie, A. E. Turgut, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo., T. Wenseleers (2012). Self-Organized Flocking with Conflicting Goal Directions. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS 2012).

M. A. Montes de Oca, E. Ferrante, A. Scheidler, C. Pinciroli, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2011). Majority-Rule Opinion Dynamics with Differential Latency: A Mechanism for Self-Organized Collective Decision-Making. Swarm Intelligence.

C. Pinciroli, V. Trianni, R. O'Grady, G. Pini, A. Brutschy, M. Brambilla, N. Mathews, E. Ferrante, G. A. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, T. Stirling, A. Gutiérrez, L. M. Gambardella, M. Dorigo (2011). ARGoS: A Modular, Multi-Engine Simulator for Heterogeneous Swarm Robotics. Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'11).

M. Dorigo, M. Birattari, R. O'Grady, L. M. Gambardella, F. Mondada, D. Floreano, S. Nolfi, T. Baaboura, M. Bonani, M. Brambilla, A. Brutschy, D. Burnier, A. Campo, A. L. Christensen, A. Decugnière, G. Di Caro, F. Ducatelle, E. Ferrante, J. Martinez Gonzales, J. Guzzi V., Longchamp, S. Magnenat, N. Mathews, M. Montes de Oca, C. Pinciroli, G. Pini, P. Rétornaz, F. Rey, J. Roberts, F. Rochat, V. Sperati, T. Stirling, A. Stranieri, T. Stützle, V. Trianni, E. Tuci, A. E. Turgut, F. Vaussard (2011). Swarmanoid, The Movie. AAAI-11 Video Proceedings.

A.~Stranieri, E.~Ferrante, A. E.~Turgut, V.~Trianni, C.~Pinciroli, M.~Birattari, M. ~Dorigo M. (2011). Self-Organized flocking with a heterogeneous mobile robot swarm. Proceedings of ECAL 2011.

E. Ferrante, M. Brambilla, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2010). ``Look out!'': Socially-Mediated Obstacle Avoidance in Collective Transport. Swarm Intelligence: 7th International Conference, ANTS 2010.

N. Mathews, A. L. Christensen, E. Ferrante, R. O' Grady, M. Dorigo (2010). Establishing spatially targeted communication in a heterogeneous robot swarm. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems: volume 1 - Volume 1.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, N. Mathews, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2010). Flocking in Stationary and Non-stationary Environments: A Novel Communication Strategy for Heading Alignment. Parallel Problem Solving from Nature – PPSN XI.

M. A. Montes de Oca, E. Ferrante, N. Mathews, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2010). Opinion Dynamics for Decentralized Decision-Making in a Robot Swarm. LNCS 6234. Swarm Intelligence. 7th International Conference, ANTS 2010.

E. Ferrante, A. E. Turgut, N. Mathews, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2010). The Role of Explicit Alignment in Self-organized Flocking.

E. Ferrante (2009). A Control Architecture for a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots: The Design of a Modular Behavior-based Architecture.

M. A. Montes de Oca, E. Ferrante, N. Mathews, M. Birattari, M. Dorigo (2009). Optimal Collective Decision-Making through Social Influence and Different Action Execution Times. Proceedings of the Workshop on Organisation, Cooperation and Emergence in Social Learning Agents of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2009).

E. Ferrante, A. Lazaric, M. Restelli (2008). Transfer of task representation in reinforcement learning using policy-based proto-value functions. Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems - Volume 3.

E. Ferrante (2007). Transfer of Knowledge in Reinforcement Learning through Policy-based Proto-Value Functions.