University of Bristol’s Sabine Hauert Awarded Honorary OBE for Pioneering Work in Swarm Robotics and AI Collaboration

Prof Sabine Hauert
Image credit: University of Bristol

(IN BRIEF) Professor Sabine Hauert has received an honorary OBE for her services to robotics, recognizing more than 20 years of research into swarm engineering and collaborative robotic systems. Her work spans applications from medical nanorobotics to drone swarms for environmental monitoring and logistics, supported by advances in AI-enabled coordination and scalable hardware design. Beyond research, she has played a key role in shaping the robotics and AI community through leadership positions, advisory contributions, and public engagement initiatives, helping bridge scientific innovation with real-world adoption and societal understanding.

(PRESS RELEASE) BRISTOL, 23-Feb-2026 — /EuropaWire/ — University of Bristol Professor Sabine Hauert has been awarded an honorary OBE in recognition of her services to robotics and her influential work in developing collaborative robotic systems designed for practical, real-world deployment.

Her research focuses on swarm engineering, a field that explores how groups of robots can operate collectively to solve problems that would be difficult, inefficient, or impossible for a single machine to address alone. By combining advances in hardware design with AI-driven coordination, Professor Hauert’s work enables robotic teams to function as adaptive, scalable systems capable of tackling complex tasks across diverse environments.

Over the past 20 years, Professor Hauert and her collaborators have designed nano- and microscale robotic technologies for medical uses such as cancer treatment and wound healing. Her research has also demonstrated drone swarms capable of detecting and responding to wildfires, explored swarm-based approaches to warehouse logistics and last-mile delivery, and developed interactive robotic platforms to support education and creative thinking.

A key objective of her work has been to create robotic platforms and algorithms that allow machines to collaborate seamlessly from the outset, enabling wider adoption of swarm technologies across healthcare, industry, and environmental applications.

In addition to her research, Professor Hauert plays an active role in advancing the broader robotics and AI ecosystem. She serves on the board of the Open Source Robotics Foundation and is an Executive Trustee of the Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence, helping connect emerging technologies with public audiences through initiatives such as RoboHub.org and AIHub.org.

Her expertise has informed numerous national and international advisory groups, including the UK Robotics Growth Partnership, the Royal Society’s Machine Learning Working Group, and several IEEE Robotics and Automation Society boards. She has also led or contributed to research initiatives securing more than £40 million in funding.

Before joining the University of Bristol, Professor Hauert conducted pioneering research at MIT, where she engineered nanoparticle swarms for targeted cancer therapies, and at EPFL in Switzerland, where she developed coordinated flying robot systems. Earlier this year, she was named by Silicon Republic as one of the most influential and creative women in the robotics and AI sectors.

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SOURCE: University of Bristol