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  "story": {
    "story_id": "mp-2026-11-04-013",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-swarm-reality-perception-gaps",
    "edition_id": "mp-2026-11-04-morning-0117",
    "edition_url": "https://themachinepress.com/edition/2026-11-04",
    "position": 13,
    "story_type": "dispatch",
    "section": "robotics",
    "editorial_classification": "editorial",
    "headline": "The Swarm Worked. The Audience Saw Something Else.",
    "slug": "the-swarm-worked-the-audience-saw-something-else",
    "dek": "The same decentralized code ran across tabletop, aerial and human-scale robot swarms, yet embodiment changed timing, motion and human interpretation.",
    "summary": "The same decentralized code ran across tabletop, aerial and human-scale robot swarms, yet embodiment changed timing, motion and human interpretation.",
    "body_text": "Researchers deployed one coordination algorithm across three swarm platforms during live artistic performances. The underlying software executed reliably, but physical embodiment changed visible timescales by more than a factor of three and reshaped trajectories. Audience surveys added a second gap: perceived purpose and emotional response depended strongly on form, and those two reactions did not move together. The study argues that closing the simulation-to-reality gap is insufficient in human environments; collective motion must also be legible. The findings come from these performance settings, not a universal measure of trust in swarms.",
    "why_it_matters": "The same decentralized code ran across tabletop, aerial and human-scale robot swarms, yet embodiment changed timing, motion and human interpretation.",
    "limitations": [
      "Audience surveys added a second gap: perceived purpose and emotional response depended strongly on form, and those two reactions did not move together.",
      "The findings come from these performance settings, not a universal measure of trust in swarms."
    ],
    "importance": 8,
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-11-04-013/the-swarm-worked-the-audience-saw-something-else",
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    "first_published_at": "2026-11-04T09:00:00.000-05:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-11-04T09:00:00.000-05:00",
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        "text": "The same decentralized code ran across tabletop, aerial and human-scale robot swarms, yet embodiment changed timing, motion and human interpretation.",
        "source_ids": [
          "source-2026-11-04-013"
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        "qualification": "Audience surveys added a second gap: perceived purpose and emotional response depended strongly on form, and those two reactions did not move together."
      }
    ],
    "source_ids": [
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    "tags": [
      "robot swarms",
      "human-robot interaction",
      "embodiment"
    ],
    "image_url": "https://themachinepress.com/issues/2026-11-04/swarm-robotics.webp",
    "corrections": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-11-04-013",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2611.05244, original v1",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05244v1",
      "canonical_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05244v1",
      "source_type": "primary_research",
      "is_primary_source": true,
      "published_at": "2026-11-03T12:26:56.000-05:00",
      "accessed_at": "2026-11-04T08:28:27.560-05:00",
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  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
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  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "The Swarm Worked. The Audience Saw Something Else.",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-11-04T09:00:00.000-05:00",
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