Calin Belta, assistant professor of manufacturing, just moved to Boston University from Drexel — bringing with him a grant from the NSF to fund five years of research into modeling and controlling robotic swarms.

A hundred small autonomous machines, or swarm, could have applications in mapping, military search-and-rescue missions or even a fire rescue, said Belta.

“In a fire, 100 robots inside a building have a better chance than just one — a stone could drop on its head. It’s a question of robustness. But the problem is how to coordinate 100 robots.” That’s where the CAREER award comes in: with the funding, Belta and his team will develop architectures to control and coordinate a swarm.