Stigmergy

Stigmergy (also sometimes called stymergy) means collaboration through the physical environment. In decentralized systems, such as ant colonies, different components collaborate to through patterns or milestones left in the middle: pheromones, accumulation of objects or any other type of physical change, such as temperature.

The concept of stigmergy was introduced by Pierre-Paul Grassé, a scholar of ants, to explain how tasks were accomplished in social insects without the need for planning or central power.

Currently it has been taken and extended to a series of algorithms that are part of swarm intelligence and artificial intelligence; In general, these algorithms are called ACO or Ant Colony Optimization.