In the wake of climate change and water quality crisis, it is crucial to find novel ways to extensively monitor the environment and to detect ecological changes early. Biomonitoring has been found to be an effective way of observing the aggregate effect of environmental fluctuations. In this paper, we outline the development of biohybrids which will autonomously observe simple organisms (microorganisms, algae, mussels etc.) and draw conclusions about the state of the water body. These biohybrids will be used for continuous environmental monitoring and to detect sudden (anthropologically or ecologically catastrophic) events at an early stage. Our biohybrids are being developed within the framework of project Robocoenosis, where the operational area planned are Austrian lakes. Additionally, we discuss the possible use of various species found in these waters and strategies for biomonitoring. We present early prototypes of devices that are being developed for monitoring of organisms.

This paper proposes an artificial pheromone communication system inspired by social insects. The proposed model is an extension of the previously developed pheromone communication system, COS-_. The new model increases COS-Φ flexibility by adding two new features, namely, diffusion and advection . The proposed system consists of an LCD flat screen that is placed horizontally, overhead digital camera to track mobile robots, which move on the screen, and a computer, which simulates the pheromone behaviour and visualises its spatial distribution on the LCD. To investigate the feasibility of the proposed pheromone system, real microrobots, Colias , were deployed which mimicked insects’ role in tracking the pheromone sources. The results showed that, unlike the COS-Φ, the proposed system can simulate the impact of environmental characteristics, such as temperature, atmospheric pressure or wind, on the spatio-temporal distribution of the pheromone. Thus, the system allows studying behaviours of pheromone-based robotic swarms in various real-world conditions.