The second group of research topics involves the development of the ‘brain’ to coordinate all activities of the body and carry out higher-order mission objectives of the colony, described later.

This will include sensors for proprioception and exteroception, an electronic nervous system (ENS), and control algorithms. Just as the focuses of the body were on lightweight and energetically efficient propulsion components, the focuses of the brain will include computationally-efficient control, compact and efficient sensors, and energy-efficient electronic hardware.

The figure illustrates a functional description of the insect nervous system (for Diptera) as well as a hybrid architecture block diagram of the physical manifestation of functions that correspond to the inner workings of the nervous system.

While we are not proposing to build a one-to-one replica, we again use insect biology to guide our design of an artificial brain.