TheStar.com - Toronto firm's gadget imitates how bees solve problems without a central commander

Link: TheStar.com - Toronto firm's gadget imitates how bees solve problems without a central commander.

Regen Energy of Toronto is applying 'swarm logic' to develop a "wireless device that allows major electrical appliances in a building to communicate with each other at a very basic level, with the goal of minimizing how much power these appliances collectively use at a given point in time."  Without requiring a central controller, it minimizes the number of appliances operating concurrently.  Benefits include reducing peak load for a building from 20-30% (which can dramatically reduce the electricity bill) and lower electrical grid peak demand (often provided from coal or gas-fired plants). 

Although 'central control' systems have a proven track record, costs raise dramatically as the system scales out, and these 'top-down' systems can fail dramatically.  Distributed, "emergent systems tend to be much more robust in the long run, and tend to survive these big disturbances a lot better."

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Technology Review posted an updated overview at http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22066/?nlid=1743. An article on the REGEN Energy control was published in the December 2007 BioInspired! Newsletter (http://biomimicry.typepad.com/newsletter/2007/12/december-2007-n.html).