Decentralized control of construction behavior in paper wasps: An overviewof the stigmergy approach

Grasse [26] coined the term stigmergy (previous work directs and triggers n ew building actions) to describe a mechanism of decentralized pathway of in formation flow in social insects. In general, all kinds of multi-agent grou ps require coordination for their effort and it seems that stigmergy is a v ery powerful means to coordinate activity over great spans of time and spac e in a wide variety of systems. In a situation in which many individuals co ntribute to a collective effort, such as building a nest, stimuli provided by the emerging structure itself can provide a rich source of information f or the working insects. The current article provides a detailed review of t his stigmergic paradigm in the building behavior of paper wasps to show how stigmergy influenced the understanding of mechanisms and evolution of a pa rticular biological system. The most important feature to understand is how local stimuli are organized in space and time to ensure the emergence of a coherent adaptive structure and to explain how workers could act independe ntly yet respond to stimuli provided through the common medium of the envir onment of the colony.