Imagine a fleet of robotic construction workers that can autonomously build structures and work together harmoniously without needing supervision or specific, pre-determined roles.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, both in Cambridge, Mass., are designing just this sort of robotic construction crew.

The engineers were inspired by the way millions of termites cooperate to build complex mounds of soil hundreds of times their size without needing detailed blueprints for the structures. Instead, the colony members use cues from each other and their environment to guide the construction process, the researchers said.