http://www.vice.com/read/are-robot-ants-the-future-of-manufacturing

In the Future, Your Phone Will Be Built by Thousands of Robot Ants
April 2, 2015
by Mark Hay

Late last month, the German industrial automation firm Festo unveiled a product that it hopes will help to revolutionize manufacturing: hand-sized, autonomous, collaborative ant robots, or BionicANTs (for "Autonomous Networking Technologies").

These mechanical bugs, to be demoed at the Hannover Messe (basically ComiCon for industrial automation nerds) later this month, are each about 5.3 inches wide and equipped with stereo cameras and floor sensors to view their surroundings, pincers for gripping, six legs for scuttling, and chargers in their antennae that attach to rails to juice up their two onboard lithium batteries for 40 minutes of autonomous action at a go. Importantly, they can use radios in their abdomens to communicate with each other, allowing them to coordinate their movements like an actual ant colony and, based on pre-programmed rules, solve problems, and collectively complete complex, diverse, and large-scale tasks efficiently.