I was at work today (awesome job, really mundane and repetitive that gives me time to think and with sweet pay) and I was thinking about the idea of using chemical markers. Essentially you'd have a number of chemicals. Basically just numbered "chem 1" "chem 2" ect. A bot can drop a chem where it is or a short distance away and that marker stays where it is. Any bot when it reaches within a distance of the chemical will "smell" it. Basically to a bot without the right dna it will not do a thing, won;t even notice it. But lets say "chem 1" means danger. A bot recently was attacked and it released this chemical as a response, any bot with the right set up will smell the chem and enter flee mode. I'm not very good at explaining this idea, it'd be neat but whether it'd even be worthwhile is an entirely different matter. I think the basics of it would be like this though:
drop Chem X
drop chem X strength (distance in which it can be detected from point of origin)
drop chem X distance (how far from bot center to place chem, probably which way the eye is facing too)
cond detect chem X
also an environment setting would be how fast the chemicals fade after being dropped.
Since it's pretty complex it might be only really usable in designed bots, I don't know if anyone has the lifespan to see something like this used by evolved bots =p There might be easier ways to pass information between bots as well, but it'd be a neat thing to see used to mark off territories. Have safe areas where bots like to stay and they mark it as safe with chemicals.
